Weird Birthday
by Beastfire
Summary: Here's chapter forty seven, after what felt like an eternity! Enjoy! Please read and review!
1. The Origin of the Problem

Beastfire: Hi, everyone! I'm back with some new stuff! This is another collaboration, this time between me and Emec, and done in the same way as the one between me and Lmann, but with a different plotline. Also, I own Ivy. Emec owns Frus, Ygrene, and Vrust. Neither of us own the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce-

Otto: GO!

Beastfire: Erm…right…So, none of us own them; they belong to Ciro Nieli. BUT I WISH I OWNED THEM! (grabs onto Ivy and Frus and shakes them vigorously)

Frus: Get a grip!

Ivy: She's GOT one…on us!

Beastfire: Enjoy!

Frus walked around the Super Robot with a strange feeling inside of him, the strange feeling most people get with the realization that they're another year older. That's right, it was his birthday. He wondered if anyone remembered and went to Antauri, who was, as usual, deep in meditation. 'I wonder what Ivy's doing,' he thought, heading for her room…which he now shared with her.

Speaking of Ivy, she was, indeed, in her room. She had in front of her an old, leather-bound book. On it was written, "Ye Olde Booke of Witchcraft for Village Idiots". Flipping to a random page, she found a spell that interested her. She had a model of a snake and hoped to use it for a voodoo type spell. However, she read the wrong one.

"Otamina!" she yelled.

The model ceased to be a model, as she accidentally brought life to it.

"MALEDIZIONE!"

The snake came at her as she picked up the book, hovered toward the ceiling, and frantically searched for another spell to counteract the previous.

"Ednarg!"

The snake just grew. Now Ivy was getting desperate. If not for the intensity of her fear, she could easily have destroyed the thing. But that thought never occurred to her as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"AIUTO!"

Frus broke into a dead sprint at this point, wondering what was wrong. When he reached the room, he say Ivy speed out, slam the door behind her, and lean against it, very much out of breath. He put an arm around her and asked what the problem was. She told him in detail what happened. Unfortunately for Frus, this explanation came in rapid, fluent Italian.

"Okay, Ivy…IVY! You need to calm down a little."

"THERE'SA(bleeo)IN'SNAKEINTHERE!"

That time, he actually understood her and entered the room. It didn't take very long for him to defeat the snake. All it took was a slash in just the right place and the snake reverted to its inanimate form. Frus picked up the fake snake, brought it out, and showed it to Ivy.

"Is this what you're so afraid of?" he asked jokingly.

He was answered by a sarcastic smirk.

"Oh yeah, Frus," said Ivy. "Hilarious. Y'know, you should really become a comedian." She seemed to lighten up a little and gave him a kiss. "Thanks. So, whassup?"

"Guess what day it is."

Ivy honestlyhad no idea what he was talking about, but took a wild stab at it.

"Uh…Tuesday?"

"Yes, but more specific."

"Oh, crap, I forgot our anniversary! Wait…would we even be considered married on your home planet?"

"It's not that, it's something else."

"Your birthday?"

"No, it's- actually, yes it is!"

"Dude! I actually guessed right? COOL! So, how old are ya?"

"Eighteen."

"Really? Well, if my birthday's not until August, and yours is in January, then you'd be…uh…let's see…eight months older?"

Frus nodded, and Ivy jumped up in joy, having actually gotten the right number. Sprx and Otto walked in. The red monkey noticed the small leather-bound book and picked it up.

"What the heck is this?" he asked.

Ivy tried to take her book back, but Sprx held it above his head. She hovered to where he had it, but he held her back with his other hand. He thought it was her diary and opened it, reading the contents. The primate's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"YOU'RE STUDYING WITCHCRAFT?" he shouted.

While Sprx was distracted with yelling at Ivy, Frus was able to take the book away from him and read it for himself.

"I always knew there was something wrong with you!" Sprx continued, holding Ivy to his face while doing so.

"Dude, I can exp-" began the mutant.

"SILENCE!"

"Dude, breath mints."

Sprx checked his breath, almost hurled from the smell, and popped a few Tic-Tacs. Ivy just smirked as he did so and dropped her. Otto was reading over Frus' shoulder and found something.

"It says here that witchcraft is a misunderstood art," read the green monkey.

Sprx just snorted and looked away.

"Where're the others, anyway?" asked Frus. "I know where Antauri is, but not Chiro, Gibson, and Nova."

"Chiro had a test to take for school," Otto explained, "Nova's out with Renegade (see Purifying Wind's stories), and Gibson had some, uh, sciency stuff to do."

"Does anyone know what today is?" was the half-Ethyal's next question.

"Yeah. Happy birthday!" Otto grinned and handed Frus a gift.

Ivy came up to Otto and leaned in toward his ear.

"This isn't that thing that pre-chews your food, is it?" she whispered.

"No," he replied.

Frus opened it and it turned out to be a book called "101 Fun Things to Do With Snake Carcasses". He grinned at the title.

"I told Jet how you hate snakes and she picked it out," Otto said.

"Thank you," Frus replied.

Sprx also handed him a gift.

"Here ya go, kid," he said.

Frus opened it to find a box of…

Earplugs?" he asked, puzzled. "What the heck do I need earplugs for?"

"To drown Ivy out."

Ivy flew quietly from the room, returned with a frying pan, and hit Sprx across the head before putting it back.

"Well, thanks anyway," said Frus.

A sound was heard outside. All of them rushed to see what it was. There was Ygrene with two gifts on his back.

"Happy birthday, Frus!" he said happily. "How are you doing? Feel any older?"

"No, and I'm just fine, thanks."

"Glad to hear it. And you, Ivy?"

"Not too bad. I've been studying witchcraft lately."

"Really? Interesting."

Ivy hovered up to the dragon's back and asked if he wanted her to give the two presents to Frus.

"Of course," he said with a smile. "Go ahead."

She sent both down telekinetically and then hovered back down herself. Frus opened the first gift and it was a jar full of a metal polishing solution from Tserof-7.

"I had a feeling that you missed having that stuff around," Ygrene told him.

"Thank you," Frus replied, looking at the jar and smiling.

"The other box is from your mother."

Frus opened the box and looked at the contents. Inside was a small amulet, with a black and turquoise stone set in the center, on a silvery chain. With it was a note. The note read:

"_Dear son, _

_Now that you have turned eighteen, you now possess this amulet. It has been passed down to to each first-born male in my lineage ever since its creation. It was designed to protect the wearer against evil. What you so with it is your choice. Be sure, however, that you do not disgrace yourself and your family by desecrating this amulet. Hopefully, I shall see you receive this piece of your heritage. If not, then know that I love you, my son."_

The note was signed by Frus' father Vrust. Frus had read the note to himself and there was a different note too, unbeknownst to him. Ivy picked it up and read it. This one read:

"_My dear son,_

_If Vrust had survived, he would be here on this day to present this to you. But his final wish was for me to do so. When he left for his final battle, he knew that we might not survive if he were to take the amulet with him. He gave it to us to keep us safe as he went into battle and sacrificed himself to protect his family for the future. I hope that you also know shat to so with the amulet."_

This one was signed by his mother Aria. There was more, though.

"_P.S.: I hope you and Ivy are doing well, and that you come visit sometime."_

Ivy had to laugh. 'Spoken like a true mom,' she thought. She handed Frus his mother's note and he read that one, giving Ivy the one he'd just read. She didn't get a good look at the amulet, so she was a little confused.

"Dude, what's this amulet they keep talkin' about?" she asked.

Frus showed Ivy the box. He took out the amulet on its chain. He then stood right in front of her and hooked it around her neck. Ivy just looked at him in confusion.

"My father and mother told me to do what I felt was right, and I just have," he explained. "Since it protects the wearer from evil, I felt that I should give it to you."

"Thanks, but I'm not sure it works."

"Why's that?"

"Sprx is still here."

Frus, Ygrene and Otto laughed, but Sprx advanced on Ivy and tried to punch her. His fist was stopped by some invisible force and he fell backwards.

"Well, whaddya know?" smirked Ivy. "It really DOES work!"

"So, Ivy, how are you with your witchcraft?" asked Ygrene.

The mutant froze on the spot.

"Erm…uh…well…it's funny you should mention that…and…oh, crap…kinda sorta okay?"

"Can we see you try it? Just something small?"

Feeling her pride get the better of her, Ivy flipped to a random page and read the spell, eyes glowing aqua rather than blue.

"Isranottobs otirips elatrop!" she shouted.

A swirling vortex appeared and began to pull at them all.

"IVY, WHAT DID YOU DO?" yelled Sprx.

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?" she replied.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SAID THAT SPELL!"

Otto decided to intervene.

"HEY! QUIT ARGUING UNTIL AFTER THIS SWIRLY THINGY IS GONE!"

The red monkey and the meerkat looked around at everyone else. Otto soon got sucked into the vortex…and Ygrene, despite his high mass, was next. Sprx and Ivy were hanging onto his tail, but Frus had anchored himself to the ground with some metal and was able to grab Ivy and pull her over to him. They held onto each other in what can only be described as a death grip. However, even that wasn't enough, for both were the final two to be sucked through. Once they wore through it, the vortex closed.

Otto was the first to land, and when he landed, the spellbook did too…right on his head. For fun, he decided to read a spell.

"Ovittac," he read, unaware that he'd just read the 'evil' spell.

His eyes became an evil, harsh blood-red, features twisting to those of your basic serial killer. He had transformed from dumb yet lovable Otto to cruel, sadistic, Sanguinario (Italian for "murderous") Otto.

Ygrene and Sprx landed elsewhere.

"Where the heck are we?" asked Sprx.

"I don't know," said Ygrene.

"You just HAD to ask her to show off, didn't you?"

"I was curious!"

"Hey, curiosity killed the cat!"

"But satisfaction brought him back!"

Meanwhile, Ivy and Frus landed in a pitch black area. Frus wasn't able to see where he was going and crashed into someone. That someone, of course, was Ivy. She let out a small scream when they both fell to the ground. Her eyes began to glow as she looked for what she crashed into.

"Sorry," Frus apologized. "Are you okay?

"Yeah, I think so."

Both got up.

"So, where are we?" Frus asked casually.

"I believe the correct question is 'when are we'?"

"You mean we've travelled through time?"

"No, I've just always wanted to say that."

Ivy created a fireball in her hand and they looked around. Just then, some strange music seemed to come in from out of nowhere. This gave her the creeps and she jumped into Frus' arms Scooby-Doo style, accidentally extinguishing the flame she'd created.

Beastfire: That's chapter 1! What will happen next time? I don't know! Please review, and Emec, write the second chapter soon!


	2. Even Weirder

Uh, how's this? I hope it's okay, and that I didn't mess anything up.

Chapter 2

Ivy landed in Frus' arms as the…wherever they were became pitch black once more. The music sounded a bit like a flute being played but with a more mystical quality, as if the wind itself made the sound. It continued even after the light went out..

Ivy noticed that Frus seemed very tense. There was also a swishing sound.

"Frus, what…" began Ivy. She trailed off when Frus began running towards where the sound seemed to be coming from.

"Ivy, I've heard this before, when I was young! Maybe we did travel through time!" exclaimed Frus.

"Frus, slow down! You can't see where you're going!" shouted Ivy. As if the landscape had heard her and decided to remedy this, a very dim light began to come from the ground. It only appeared where Frus's feet touched and only stayed as long as his feet were touching. It was impossible to make out anything, even so. It seemed as if the land was flat and barren.

Meanwhile, monkey Hyde was looking through the pages of the spell book for a spell that would help him find the others. Or anyone else in the area, for that matter. He activated one of his saws and thought about what he would do when he found them.

Sprx and Ygrene were wandering around the area that they had landed in. Sprx, who was riding Ygrene, continued blaming the dragon for their predicament. Ygrene tried to tune him out as he continued looking for something that looked like it could help. Every once in a while he would roar and send out a blast of blue energy.

Frus continued heading straight towards where the sound was coming from and suddenly he crashed, seemingly into thin air, dropping Ivy and falling down. The two of them got up and suddenly there was a large wooden door there. Apparently, that was what they had crashed into, but it hadn't been visible until afterwards.

"There's something strange about this door," muttered Frus.

"Besides the sudden appearance?" asked Ivy.

"Yeah, I mean, look at it. There's no wall around it," said Frus.

Ivy reached up and turned the knob, and the door began to open. Behind it was a doorway in thin air, with many glowing eyes inside.

"Close the door," hissed a voice. Ivy was happy to comply. She and Frus began to walk around the door when they bumped into another one. This one, however, was stuck to the first one. Also, it was sideways. And there was all going up the rest of the side of the first door.

Ivy and Frus began to back up, and another door appeared, this time behind them. It opened by itself, and the skeleton of a hand reached out. The bony hand was on fire, and dark lines crossed it. However, it seemed to be somewhat transparent. Regardless, it was going for Ivy. However, when it got too close, it began to disintegrate and quickly pulled back into its door, closing it afterwards. The two mammals stared for a moment, then turned to try leaving again. Now they seemed to be in an infinity of doors hanging off of doors, standing alone by themselves, floating and sticking out at odd angles. Some of the doors seemed to writhe and others vanished to a different place. Some were slowly disappearing altogether. But more were appearing, and this strange area was spreading out further and further into the darkness.

"Are we more lost than were before, or less lost?" asked Ivy as she summoned a large fireball so she would have enough light to see what was happening.

"I have no idea…I guess that our best bet is to find out what that sound is," said Frus.

"Find out? I thought that you said that you knew," said Ivy.

"I know that I remember it from a long time ago. I'm not even sure how long, actually," said Frus.

Upon hearing this, Ivy sighed. "I guess it's our best chance right now. Let's go," she said.

By this time, Ygrene was starting to get tired of Sprx's company. To be fair, the red monkey had a reason to be mad, but his mood wasn't helping. Ygrene turned his head towards the red monkey when glowing bubbles began to appear around him. This was strange enough to Ygrene, but Sprx was able to get a much closer look when a bubble went right in front of his face. It looked like there was a movie about some girl playing inside. Her attire looked medieval, and she was running around in a field. Suddenly, smoke appeared over the horizon and the girl looked afraid and began to run. Before she got very far, mounted warriors were in the field. They carried torches, and began to burn the crops. Then, one noticed the girl. He fired an arrow, and the moment it struck, the bubble popped.

Well, I'm stuck, so I'm going to stop here.

Frus: So, Ivy and I are in a dark world with many, many doors, at least some of which contain untold horrors, with little or no idea where we're going, while a homicidal Otto is looking for us, and Sprx is watching painful deaths on bubble TV?

Me: Yep.

Frus: And Beastfire will be telling the next part?

Me: Yep.

Frus: I'm not even going to say it.


	3. Contest

Beastfire: Hi! Here's chapter 3! Sorry it took so long, but I was going through writer's block with it. And, a note to Astral Firefly, I can't take credit for chapter 2. That was written by Emec, as all of the even numbered chapters will be. Here, now read it, people!

While Ygrene and Sprx were having some "fun" with the bubbles, Ivy and Frus were still having a problem with the doors. Now, one had sprouted up between the two of them and they both tried to open it at the same time. After both mistakenly thinking it was stuck, they decided to look for a different way to find each other.

As Ivy walked along, she opened many doors out of curiosity. She'd found, so far, more strange creatures, the Holy Grail, the secret to life, a drunk llama, Amelia Eahrhart, and a nudist colony of people who really shouldn't be part of one. She slammed that last door, image of the contents burned into her retinas.

"You again!" a voice shrieked.

Ivy whipped around to see a pink weasel.

"Rose," she growled.

Meanwhile, Otto had set his sights on a young girl. He thought that she would be a good target to practice on. But before he could attack her, she noticed him. The girl released a happy squeal.

"Oh, you are so cute!"

The green monkey said nothing, but attempted to slice through her. Nothing happened.

"Silly monkey!" she giggled. "You can't kill me!"

"Why not?" he growled.

"You're in some place where the souls of the dead live."

The girl began to laugh at her own bad joke. She grabbed onto Otto and skipped off with him. He was struggling to get out of her arms, but to no avail.

Frus, in the meantime, was just as lost as ever. 'Great!' he thought. 'Just great! First, we all get stuck here, now I've lost Ivy! Some birthday this is turning out to be! What's next?'. As though the place had read his thoughts, a hole opened up beneath him and he fell through it, cursing the whole way down.

Ygrene and Sprx were still surrounded by those bubbles. The red monkey was, by now, shaking from seeing a different monkey, similar to him, though, being murdered gruesomely by a mob of women. The dragon had seen this and the monkey's reaction and decided to get back at him.

"It's like looking into your future, isn't it?" he teased.

Sprx, upon hearing this, fainted. 'That'll shut him up,' thought Ygrene with a smirk as he pushed his way through the bubbles.

Back with Ivy, she and Rose were staring each other down. Rose noticed the amulet around Ivy's neck.

"Isn't that the amulet that protects against evil?" Rose asked.

"Yeah. What's it to ya?"

"Well, if we fight, you'll have an unfair advantage. Would you want Frus to know that you cheated in a fight?"

Ivy knew that she didn't want that to happen, but if she were to take the amulet off, Rose would have the advantage. She thought of a different idea.

"How about we have a drinking contest?" she challenged.

"Fine. I accept your challenge."

20 MINUTES LATER…

Rose was about ready to pass out, and Ivy was quite tipsy herself.

"Had enough?" Ivy asked drunkenly.

To which, Rose replied, "I'll tell you when I've had en-"

She collapsed right then and there, leaving the mutant as the victor. Ivy grinned and staggered off to look for Frus.

Frus was about ready to lose his temper big time. It really wouldn't have taken much to set him off at this point. In fact, he'd thought of going ballistic on anything to approach him. Now, he could smell something and it smelled strongly of alcohol. Since it was so dark, he couldn't see what it was. He lashed out with his claws, but it wasn't fazed.

"Who are you?" he yelled. "Show yourself!"

"Hey, officer! What brings ya out here tonight?" a rather tipsy sounding voice asked.

Frus knew that voice.

"Ivy?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

He reached out and hugged her, happy to have found her again. Also, the music that they'd heard earlier seemed to be louder here. They walked some more, with Frus holding Ivy close to him so that they didn't get separated again and the sound got even louder.

"I think it's coming from behind this door!" exclaimed Frus.

He began to turn the knob, and the door slowly opened…

Beastfire: And this is where I leave you! Heehee…SUPER CLIFFY! Hahahahaha!

Ivy: Do I wanna see what's behind that door?

Beastfire: (ignoring Ivy) Hey, Emec, write that next chapter soon! And remember; when Ivy's drunk, she's even more insane than usual. Please review!


	4. Reunion! YAY!

Enjoy!

Frus opened the door and saw a full-blood Ethyal sitting on a pillow. He was silver and looked a lot like Frus. However, This Ethyal had spikes growing from his body and was even more powerfully built. He was playing a wind instrument and looking into a bubble that seemed to contain a miniature version of Tserof-7.

Frus stared for a moment, unable to find his voice. However, Ivy knew just where hers was.

"Hey, what's with the, the, this here, and the music and the dark room and pillow and the near identicalness and stuff here?" sputtered Ivy.

The Ethyal looked up from the bubble and stopped playing his song, and an eerie quiet seemed to fill the room. He was about to speak to Ivy when he saw who it was who was standing next to her. Tears began to fill his eyes.

"Father!" said Frus. He ran over to Vrust and hugged him. However, when he looked up, he saw that it was not tears of joy in his parent's eyes.

"My son…my only son, how did you end up here, in the realm of ghosts?" asked Vrust.

Meanwhile, Otto was trying to figure out a way to get away from this girl and find/kill Frus, Ivy, and Sprx. If he could manage, he'd take out the dragon, too. But first, escape.

The green monkey pondered for a while as the girl ghost danced with him and told him about how she died. He tried to run at every chance he got, but it didn't work.

"So, should I just tell you what you should do?" asked a voice.

"Huh, what, who is that?" asked Otto.

"Who is who?" asked the girl.

"Nothing," said Otto. "Who are you," he whispered.

"Eganrac," said the voice. "But you know me as Shadow Beast."

"I remember you. From the final fight against Saga. What do you want?" asked Otto.

"Simple. I need a vessel now more than ever. If you let me use you, I will be able to return with you to the realm of mortals and be resurrected, and you will be able to harm the shades," said the voice.

"How can one harm the dead?" asked Otto.

"My dear boy, you must know that I cloud the spirit. If my powers are infused to a weapon, it can cut a ghost like normal flesh. You can utterly destroy this child and be on your way," said the voice.

"I accept," said Otto eagerly. He spoke these words a bit louder that what he'd been saying thus far.

"What do you accept, Mr. Monkey?" asked the girl. Suddenly, she backed away from Otto, an expression of horror on her face. Otto, however, was grinning from ear to ear. He activated one of his saws; it was now red and black. Otto sliced at the girl to see if it would really work. A red line appeared on her ghostly form. Otto began to laugh and activated his other saw, slashing wildly with both. Soon the girl looked like a severely cracked figurine and she was flickering in and out of existence. Otto returned his hands to normal, made a fist, and focused on it. It ignited with demon fire and he punched the girl, and she broke into pieces, which quickly faded away.

Otto began to laugh hysterically, his voice tainted with that of Eganrac. Once he calmed down, he went off to look for the others once again. But this time, he had Eganrac leading him.

Back with Ivy, Frus, and Vrust, questions were being asked.

"Whaddya mean Ghost Realm?" asked Ivy.

"This is where those with a reason not to move on go when they die," said Vrust.

"Don't worry, Father, we're not dead," said Frus. Upon hearing this, Vrust pulled his son into a powerful hug.

"How did you get here, then, son?" asked Vrust.

"That was me. Stupid magic!" said Ivy. Vrust looked puzzled.

"This is Ivy. She was reading a book on witchcraft and a portal kind of opened and…" Frus trailed off.

"You don't seem as angry as I would think at being pulled through a strange portal, and on your birthday, too," said Vrust. He looked at his son with a knowing expression. "Are you two, you know?"

"Yep!" said Frus. He turned to Ivy, to introduce her to his father. However, Vrust reached forward and grabbed her, pulling both her and Frus into a big hug.

"Glad to meet you, Ivy!" said Vrust. After a moment he let go of both of them.

"Father, it's great to see you again, but we need to look for our friends, and Shuggazoom, where we live, needs us. What can you tell us about this place?" said Frus.

"I'll tell you what I can, son. You see, if a spirit is afraid to go on, or wants to become a ghost and keep people away from something, or can't accept death, than it can go here, and have a semi-corporeal form. Some create zones that are to their liking, and some mess with other spirits. I use this orb to watch over you and Aria, although I haven't been able to find you for some time. You said that you'll be in a place called Shuggazoom, right? Anyway, those doors lead to the various worlds that ghosts visit, and ghost lairs, and libraries for anyone who wants to spend the afterlife learning everything there is. If you focus enough, you can avoid the doors, or rather make them avoid you. I'll lead you to a few of those libraries so that-" Vrust was cut off by a loud screech. He and Frus looked at Ivy, why was trying to play Vrust' flute. She looked over at them and put it down, and Vrust continued, "I'll lead you to some libraries so that you can ask about portal spells and stuff, and I'll keep you away from the more dangerous doors. Hopefully, we'll be able to find your friends."

And that's where we'll be stopping for the moment. I hope that you liked this chapter! Please review!


	5. Party!

Beastfire: Here's chapter 5! Glad you all enjoy it so far!

Back with Ygrene and Sprx…or should I say, just Ygrene, for Sprx ran off on his own to get away from the bubbles and the dragon's teasing involving the one with a monkey much like Sprx getting mauled, the dragon was searching for either Otto, Sprx, Ivy, Frus, or all four. His results? Absolutely nothing. To say that this was getting frustrating would be the understatement of the century.

Meanwhile, Ivy, Frus, and Vrust were walking through the area they were in. The full-Ethyal was asking Ivy all sorts of questions, out of curiosity.

"So, Ivy, where are you from?" he asked casually.

"Earth."

"Hmmm…I think I've heard of it…isn't that planet covered by mostly water?"

"Yeah…why? Didja meet with someone from there?"

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact. How is it you met my son?"

Ivy and Frus looked at each other and said, at the same time, "Accident."

What followed was an explanation of their first encounter, with Vrust interrupting at various points. He seemed highly interested. However, when they mentioned the whole "fixed" comment, Vrust had one thing to say…

"He wasn't broken, was he?"

"Well, no-" said Ivy, getting cut off.

"Then why would you say you'd fix him?"

The meerkat leaned in to him, whispering the procedure in his ear. He looked right at her.

"Don't even joke about that," he said seriously. "That nearly happened to me in battle once."

"I wasn't joking at the time," Ivy replied. "The dude was in my face about it!"

Before anyone could say anything else, another door appeared in front of them.

"Strange!" exclaimed Vrust. "I've never seen this door before!"

There was loud rock music emanating from behind this door, and the scent of alcohol could be detected. It was also in the way of any other areas in this realm. The door opened to reveal a wild party.

"Well, how do we get through this?" Frus asked.

Ivy studied the partiers inside and finally decided, "I can handle this."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. These are my kinda people!"

The mutant sauntered into the chaos that was the wild party.

Sprx, in the meantime, was trying to find another sign of life. He saw some green and thought it to be Otto.

"OTTO?" he called. "IS THAT YOU?"

The green figure turned around to reveal that it was Otto, alright!

"Come here, Sprx," he said in his newly evil tone.

"What's wrong with you, Otto?"

"Oh, nothing," said the monkey, activating his saws.

"Yeah, right! You're nuts!"

As Otto began to charge, Sprx was too scared to move at first. When he got to the point of wetting himself, he decided to run for his life.

It'd been a few hours since Ivy went into the party. Frus and Vrust, who'd elected to stay outside, were getting worried.

"Maybe we should go in after her," said Vrust.

"I'm sure she's fine, Father," Frus told him. "Maybe…I hope…"

"I noticed that you gave her that amulet, son."

"Yeah. Usually, if something really bad happens to either of us, it happens to her. I'm not quite sure why…"

In just a few seconds, Ivy re-emerged, highly unstable.

"Are you drunk again?" asked Frus.

"The only way to get through there was to beat their local champ at a drinking game," she said drunkenly. "And guess what? I won!"

Of course, she ended up drinking so much, she collapsed right there. Frus just shook his head and smiled slightly.

"Way to take one for the team," he muttered, picking her up at the same time.

Beastfire: Well, that's all I can think of! Please review. And, Emec, write that new chapter soon!


	6. Actually Finding Some Info

Chapter 6

Ivy opened one eye, only to quickly shut it once more due to the bright light of the room she was in. She slowly opened both eyes and began to adjust. Taking a look around, she saw that she was on a couch in a huge library, Frus sitting right next to her and reading some weird book with a look of frustration on his face. There were thousands of candles all around, some floating in midair. And, oddly enough, there was some random old guy playing soft music on a violin.

"Hey Frus, how'd we get here?" she asked. Frus looked up and hugged Ivy. He then explained how the party goers had led them back to the main path, after which Vrust led them to an other-worldly library which, considering that it contained pretty much everything anyone who had ever died had ever known, should have something helpful.

"However, there are literally billions of books to go through. I did find a few things, though," said Frus.

"Where's Vrust now?" asked Ivy.

"He's looking for one of those scholar ghosts. I don't understand this stuff at all," answered Frus.

"Let me take a look," offered Ivy. She took the book Frus had been staring. The writing was in some foreign language. Actually, it looked like someone had gotten together a group of birds, smeared black paint on their feet, and made them fight. Then, something strange happened. The words seemed to shift and change until they became legible. "Hey Frus," said Ivy.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"I think I got something," said Ivy.

Meanwhile, in the realm of the living…

"Saga, I don't believe you," said Gibson.

"What? Why?" asked Saga.

"Do you mean besides all of that stuff you did last time we saw you? How about this: No one would stop what they were doing to listen to someone who said 'I sensed a disturbance,' especially if what they were doing was important experimentation," said Gibson.

"What do you mean? I sensed that something really bad happened, and I came back to Shuggazoom to help!" said Saga.

"Do you mean to help us, or whoever is supposed to be doing these things?" asked Gibson.

"If I felt like fighting, you'd be dead already. Fine, if you won't help, where are the others?" asked Saga.

"They're unavailable! Now, OUT!" said Gibson. He immediately realized that he could have chosen a better way to say that. Saga punched him hard in the solar plexus and left without another word.

Saga began to wander around town, thinking about the situation. Then he saw a yellow tail slip around a corner. Saga ran to catch up.

Hmm…I seriously can't think of anything else. Sorry!


	7. Blasts From Their Pasts

Beastfire: Well, here's chapter 7…enjoy!

Back with Ivy and Frus in the library, Frus was looking over Ivy's shoulder at what was on the page.

"What do you mean 'you got something'? I still can't read that!" he said.

"Well," Ivy replied, "the reason could be that it's in Italian. I can read it because it was my first language. Translated, this says…if you've been sucked into the ghost realm by a portal, you're as good as stuck there."

"WHAT?" yelled Frus in disbelief.

"I'm just messin' with ya. There's actually nothin' in here about portals, but there IS a lot about vanquishing demons."

She looked at the book in further detail and nearly dropped the book in shock.

"What's wrong?" asked Frus, putting an arm around her.

"All of the info in this book came from the mind of my great great grandma Maria Sangretti!"

"But I thought you hated that family."

"She was a mutant, like me, and also went against the ways of the mafia. But she was also a demon hunter, and the last demon she killed, killed her at the same time…113 years ago."

"Whoa. That's pretty cool, though. How was she at hunting demons?"

"She was the best one in all of Italy."

"Cool!"

"Maybe I should keep this one…"

"Go right ahead," said a voice behind them.

Both turned around to see a young woman, likely in her twenties, that stood at about 5 foot 2. She had black and brown streaked hair pulled back into some sort of up-do, bangs covering her left eye, and big blue eyes. She wore a dress typical of the late 19th century and, quite frankly, looked almost exactly like Ivy did when she was human.

"Are you my great great grandma?" Ivy asked.

"Well, yes, I am," Maria replied. "You're still alive, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"How does she know?" asked Frus.

"She's a telepath."

"Oh."

"Here," said Maria, giving them another book. "Take this book, as well. It contains everything one would wish to know concerning magic and ghosts. It was created by Bon Stoppable. She was a mutant as well and studied this sort of thing."

"You sure?" asked Frus.

"Of course," came another voice.

This new voice came from another young woman, but with blonde hair pulled back into a bun, brown eyes, freckles, and had a mid 19th century dress on. Her name was Bon Stoppable and she was Ivy's great great great grandmother.

"I can tell you need it," said Bon.

"Can you read minds too?" asked Frus.

"No. I can just hear extremely well. In fact, super hearing is my mutant power."

"Well, thank you," said Frus.

"Yeah," Ivy added. "I think it'll really help a lot."

With that, Maria and Bon both left the room and went their separate ways. Just as Ivy and Frus were about to look through the second book, a loud rattling sound was heard. Ivy cringed as she thought of what it could be, and Frus knew exactly what it was. He grabbed onto Ivy and tried to hide her behind a bookcase.

"Dude, what are ya doin'?" she asked.

"Trust me, Ivy, this is for your own safety!"

After much pushing, prodding, and pleading, the mongoose succeeded. As soon as he hid her, three really large rattlesnakes slithered their way in. One of them noticed Frus and glared at him.

"I remember you," he growled.

"Likewise," Frus returned suspiciously.

"Yeah, you're Vrust's brat! So you've finally been killed, huh? GOOD! It's the perfect payback for what your father did to me!"

"For your information, I'm not dead!"

"That makes this even better."

"Oh, really? And how's that?"

"You can't harm me, since I'm already dead…and if I kill you, I'll get my revenge!"

The snake in charge paused, getting a scent of something.

"What is it?" asked one of his inferiors.

"I smell…fear."

Frus knew exactly who this snake could smell. 'Wait,' Frus told himself. 'Ivy's well protected. They can't harm her.' Of course, this turned out to be very true, as the snake lost the scent. As it turns out, when Ivy found the snakes coming toward her, she fainted. This wasn't, though, before she sent a message explaining the problem to Vrust telepathically.

Meanwhile, Sprx was still running from Otto, so there's not much to tell about there, so let's move on.

In Shuggazoom, Saga caught up with Nova. When she saw him coming after her, she activated her fists.

"Wait, Nova!" said Saga. "I'm not here to hurt you!"

"Well, whaddya want?" asked the yellow monkey.

"I sensed a disturbance and-"

"That's more Antauri's kinda thing."

"Well, where IS Antauri?"

"Probably meditating as usual."

"But would you help with this problem?"

"I-I don't really know if I can."

Saga sighed in annoyance.

Vrust, back in the ghost realm, was looking for someone to explain what they found to him, his son, and his son's girlfriend…provided she was conscious. He suddenly received the message in his head, saying that his son needed some help. The Ethyal ran back to the library to provide some backup.

Ygrene, in the meantime, had found an area populated by hippies and decided to take a break there…well, at least SOMEONE'S enjoying themselves!

Beastfire: That's all I can think of! Please review and, Emec, write your next chapter soon!


	8. We Need an Exorcism! STAT!

Sprx had been running for his life for untold amounts of time when he came upon a door. Without taking the time to think about what could be on the other side, he opened it, jumped through, and slammed it shut. He immediately began to search for a lock, but there was none. Otto burst through, knocking the red monkey onto his back. He sealed the door with dark energy, then activated a saw and was about to strike, when he saw what was in the room. Or rather who, as he was looking at Frus, who was dodging strikes from three huge snakes.

"It's just a matter of time before we catch you," hissed one. Frus responded by hurling a blob of liquid metal at its face. The serpent was able to shake it off before it could harden, and seemed not to care about the intense heat.

'Otto, forget this insignificant piece of filth. I have a plan,' came Eganrac's voice in Otto's head. The green monkey grinned.

'Frus, do you want to know how to defeat these creatures?'

'Yes; what do I have to do?'

'Serve me.'

'And who are you?'

'I am the darkness.'

"Get away!" Frus yelled his answer and struck out at the nearest serpent. He slashed through its body, which stopped it for a second, but it was like waving his hand through a mist. The snake was instantly whole again.

Otto jumped from bookshelf to bookshelf, watching the fight. Then, he noticed something else.

'Frus.'

'I told you to go away!'

'What if I said that I could help you protect Ivy?'

'Ivy is safe where she is!'

'Do you really think that your meager hiding place will save her?' Otto silently jumped down to where Ivy was and shook her awake. He then jumped back up to where he had been.

"That scent. The smell of fear, I smell it again!" said one snake. He darted straight towards where Ivy was hiding.

"Okay, I give up," whispered Frus. Suddenly, dark energy began to fill him. His fur began to lose its color and turned a dark, sickly gray. Frus summoned his Phoenix Talons instantly, and they, too, were tainted. Frus struck at the snakes, striking them all in under a second, even though they were in different parts of the room. They faded away.

Meanwhile, Vrust had been pounding on the door, creating as many weapons as he could control at once and using them as well as his version of the Phoenix Talons. Eventually, he broke through.

In world of the living, Saga was messing with wires in the Super Robot. Having decided to take matters into his own hands, he knew that he needed to try and find out exactly what had happened. After a good bit of time, and doing partial transformations of his body so that he would have the tools he needed, Saga had gotten control of every surveillance camera. He ran through everything that had happened since an hour before he had sensed a problem.

Once he found out what had happened, Saga simply vanished, leaving everything in disarray. He appeared on top of a large building. Just as he prepared to leave and try to find someone who could trace where portals had gone, he saw a familiar shape. It was a huge man wearing all black.

"You!" said Saga. Before he could say anything more, he noticed something different about Morgue. On his back were wings of purest white.

"Hello again," said Morgue. He then charged his palm with energy and rushed over to Saga, placing his hand on Saga's face. Saga started to lash out in an attempt to defend himself and saw that Morgue was gone. Saga looked around and saw that he was in a very strange, very dark place.


	9. Another Reunion

Beastfire: Hope you all enjoy chapter 9!

Eganrac decided it was time to get Otto and Frus out. In order for things to go according to plan, they had to bring Ivy with them as well. As for Sprx, they hadn't forgotten about him, either. They brought down every bookshelf in the room, making a pile of books land on Sprx to pin him down as they started a fire to burn what was left. They started out of the room, dragging Ivy with them. That was when Vrust walked in and saw flames, a large pile of books, and Otto and Frus leaving with Ivy. He saw a monkey's tail sticking out and decided to help him first. The Ethyal pulled Sprx out from the pile and was about to leave with him until he saw a black and blue paw sticking out from another part of the pile. He decided to investigate that as well. What he found was Ivy. Needless to say, he was confused…at first.

"Nice to see the amulet still works," he said to himself.

Ivy was still unconscious and had to be carried out of the room. Vrust and Sprx went to the nearest exit, with Sprx carrying two books…two that he found by where Ivy was…the two that her two ancestors had given to her.

"But how can she be here when they just took her with them?" asked the red monkey.

"Well," began Vrust, "that amulet is designed to help protect against evil, right? Now, if the wearer is unable to defend his or her self, the amulet creates a decoy to fool whoever is after them. When she wakes up, the three of us will go save Frus."

Meanwhile, Saga was battling his way through the many doors until he came upon the one that had the party going on earlier. Now, everyone had since passed out, so he was able to easily make his way to the library. The fire had died down, not having much of anything to burn. Since the books contain the knowledge of those who had died previously, they couldn't be destroyed. He went out one door and saw…Vrust, Sprx, and Ivy.

At this time, Ygrene had decided to leave the hippie fest he was at. He began walking around until he met with two familiar faces…Otto and Frus. Something was wrong, though. He could feel it. His eyes narrowed as he realized what was wrong.

"Eganrac…" he growled.

Back with the others, Vrust could feel a slight stirring in his arms. Ivy was beginning to wake up. Her head hurt really badly.

"What the (bleep) happened?" she groaned.

Vrust set Ivy down as Sprx decided to tell her.

"Uh…well, there were these snakes and apparently you fainted and some voice got into your boyfriend's head and helped him kill the snakes but now he's crossed over to the dark side with Otto…I think…"

Ivy then noticed Saga. "WHAT THE (bleep) IS HE DOING HERE?"

"I sensed a disturbance and tried to help, but I was sent here by Morgue." He then got a good look at Vrust. "Don't tell me…you're his father, aren't you?"

"Yes, actually, I am," Vrust answered.

"I remember you," Saga said to Ivy. "I remember how you kicked me in a certain area…"

The meerkat grinned. "Yep! It got you to drop me, too! So…any ideas on how to get Frus back?"

Beastfire: And this is where I leave you all for this chapter. Emec, write the next one soon! As for the rest of you, please review!


	10. Not Getting Much Better

Chapter 10

"Now this is a dilemma," said Saga.

"What do you mean? We have to save Frus!" said Ivy.

"But, if you remember, the weapon that we need to fight him is mystical golden energy," explained Saga. "And we used up all of it that we know about fighting him the last time, and it seems that even that didn't work."

"No, he's dead. This is the world of the dead," said Vrust.

"Seriously?" asked Saga.

"Yes, now let's get back to the whole rescue plan thing," said Ivy.

"Okay, so we killed him. That might even make things worse. Even if we get more golden power, what's to say that it'll work? He's dead," said Saga.

"Wait, but doesn't that mean that those snakes Frus beat were dead?" asked Sprx.

"Well, yeah," said Ivy.

"Then if we can free Frus' mind, maybe he can take care of this himself," said Sprx.

"Somehow, I don't think that the Monkey Team wants Otto ripped apart," said Ivy.

"Well, whatever happens, we need a way to sever the connection between Eganrac and our friends," said Saga.

"Then our best hope might just be that amulet," said Vrust.

"Get out of our way, reptile," said Otto. Though the green monkey was much smaller than Ygrene, he was confident.

"Get out of my friends, demon!" commanded the dragon.

"Do you think that you can stand against me?" hissed Otto, now using Egenrac's voice. Frus, meanwhile, was getting tired of this talk. He lunged forward to attack Ygrene. He crashed into the dragon with dark energy surrounding him. Ygrene was knocked backwards, but he quickly got up.

"You're stronger than this! Fight him," said the dragon. He wasn't too keen on the idea of fighting his friends.

Otto scoffed and commanded Frus to continue fighting. But Frus wasn't sure. For a single instant his eyes glowed a golden color. Then he shook his head and slashed at Ygrene. The dragon dodged and tried to grab Frus. Frus dodged and struck out again, this time leaving a deep cut in Ygrene's side. The dragon roared in pain and instinctively shot a blast. Frus put up a shield of steel reinforced with dark energy. Otto, meanwhile, watched the show.

The others were alerted when they heard Ygrene's roar and they rushed towards the sound. They reached the site of the battle and stood in shocked awe for a moment. Then Ivy called out to Frus. Otto turned and threw a ball of dark energy. Vrust created a shield of metal, but it began to strain against the power immediately. Ivy and Saga tried to help, but it still didn't see to be enough. However, they had Frus' attention.

The half-Ethyal looked over at what has happening and his paws and the area around his eyes started to glow golden. He added to the shield and the energy fizzled out. But once it did, Frus returned to his fight, his fur once again dark. Meanwhile, Saga rushed over to Otto, charging his hands with energy. He knew that their best chance was if Eganrac didn't have time to charge dark energy for Otto to use.


	11. Back to Normalor Maybe Not

Beastfire: Here's chappie 11...enjoy!

Frus was now facing off against his father and girlfriend, while Saga and Sprx were over by Otto. The green monkey had decided to fight them.

"Son," Vrust began, "fight it!"

Frus just kicked him into Ygrene. Ivy hovered up to Frus at this point.

"Listen, Frus," she told him. "I want you to concentrate, and tell me one thing...why did you let this happen to you?"

Frus seemed to return to normal temporarily and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I did it to protect you," he said before removing his hand and becoming evil again.

Ivy had no idea what to say and just stared at him for a moment. Then emotion took over as she threw herself onto him and began making out with him. Frus tried to claw at her but the amulet provided protection from it. Finally, he returned the kiss and Eganrac slowly left his body, returning his fur to it's normal silver sheen. Once Eganrac was gone, however, Frus collapsed into Ivy's arms. She brought him over to Vrust and Ygrene, placed the amulet around his neck, and ducked just in time as Sprx and Saga were sent flying at them.

Otto now approached them all.

"You don't honestly think that you can get away this easily, do you?" he asked mockingly.

The green monkey's tail reached out and wrapped tightly around Ivy. Before anyone could stop him, he dragged her over to him, activated a saw, and cut her right in the flame of her back. Ivy screamed in such pain, like nobody had ever heard before. Otto collected the blood on his saw and flung it at Frus.

"Tell him that if he wants to see his girlfriend alive again, then he'll have to come find me. All of you will!" Otto barked.

Ivy was slowly becoming weaker as Otto ran off with her. When they were gone, a certain demon hunter reappeared on the scene. Maria Sangretti had witnessed what had just happened and walked over to the group.

Beastfire: And that's all I can think of for now. Please review! And Emec, write the next chapter soon!


	12. Filling Him In

Chapter 12

Frus' POV

I felt something we hit my face, and I began to wake up. I could hear snatches of conversation between Ygrene and some woman, but nothing else. Then, my vision started to return, slowly but surely, and I could see that it was Ivy's great great grandmother. I also decided to take a look at what it was that had landed on me. I brushed my hand along my face and saw that it was red. I heard my father ask if I was okay, but I ignored him, as I was frantically looking around. I saw that Ivy wasn't there, and tears began to well in my eyes as I put two and two together.

"Did I-" I began, but Saga cut me off.

"No. It was Otto. He said that we have to catch him to save her," he said.

"Then, she's sill alive?" I asked, hope evident in my voice.

"Yes. For now at least," said Saga.

"Then what are we waiting around for!" I said, shakily getting to my feet. Everyone looked over at me, but their looks turned into staring. "What is it?" I asked. I looked down and saw that the amulet was on me. But that wasn't the weird part. The amulet was over my heart, and from underneath it, spreading out along my veins, was golden light. Suddenly, I began to feel much stronger. And there was only one thing I wanted to do with that strength. I ran off at a speed that almost caused me to lift off from the ground and fly. Following the now strong scent of blood, I gave chase. I _would _find Ivy. The others could do nothing but follow.

Normal POV

Soon, Frus reached a door. But this one was different than the others. I looked like a pulsing wound in the air. Frus started to take a closer look, and suddenly it burst open, revealing a dark, infected looking portal. By this time, the others had caught up. Frus looked around, and it was clear that everyone agreed with him. No matter what, they had to save Ivy.


	13. Blood

Beastfire: Here's chapter 13…ENJOY!

(Ivy's POV)

Ow…my back! Why'd Otto turn evil, I wonder? I was kinda drifting in and out of consciousness and could barely move. It was worse than a hangover, torture, and President Bush combined! As Otto was dragging me, I could have sworn that my tail was getting pretty banged up. Plus, I could feel the blood running down my back to the ground. Yes…the fun experience that is my life…

"Yo, Otto?" I asked. "What the (bleep) is up with you lately?"

His response? A punch in the face. This has happened to me way too many times. I could feel my eye bruising already. Why, of everyone in this universe, do these things always happen to me? By now, you'd think I'd be used to it…and I kinda am. In the seventeen years of my life, I've been shot, slapped around, punched, kicked, stabbed, and sent to court twice…and that's just when I was three! Things went fine until the Blender Incident when I was seven. That one was a freak accident! The steel plate is still in my head.

Things got worse at thirteen, when Don Tony came back. There was more abuse, including whips, and I ran away as often as possible. Stupid cops brought me back each time.

As I reflected on every bad thing that's ever happened to me, I reached more recent times…like when me and Frus met a few months before. Sure, I'd endured as much torture as in the past, but I actually, at this point, had someone who'd save me without hesitation. I found myself wishing he was there with me.

When I was thinking, Otto came up to me, or rather, brought me up to his face and had an evil glint in his eyes. I suddenly felt very uneasy, and in his eyes, I could read his intent: kill Sprx and Ygrene first, then Frus, and me last. Why? To dish out the torture, of course!

I looked to see where I was getting dragged to. There was this one freaky looking portal that he'd just created. I felt strong for some reason…just strong enough to make an escape attempt. I bit into his tail and swung my body against him, forcing him to drop me. I got up off of the ground and made a break for it. I headed for the door I was brought through. It appeared to be…throbbing? Weird…

I could hear Otto running after me and I reached up to open the door and got tackled. There, on my already injured back, was Otto. He got up, flipped me over, and bent my legs in directions they really weren't supposed to be bent, until I felt the bones break. I would have screamed in pain, but he had a hand over my windpipe. I could barely even breathe! I tried to reach up and strangle him, but he grabbed both of my wrists, flipped me over again, pinned both arms behind my back, and tied them together before picking me back up, throwing me over his shoulder, and taking me back through that portal.

I wondered how Jet would react to being a widow, because I sensed that Frus was looking for me…and he'd probably kill him for what he did to me. If he were to kill Otto, Jet would kill him, I'd kill her, and Onyx would kill me. So, basically, it couldn't end well.

We landed in some indescribably nasty-looking, depressing, and just plain sick and wrong place. He threw me roughly to the ground, at which point I had blood, dirt, dust, and I didn't want to imagine what else caked into my fur and hair. I knew I needed a shower…badly. It wasn't like I could lash out at him mentally, as that cut to the flame disabled all of my powers, which wouldn't return until the wound healed.

Upon landing, I wound up landing flat on my face…on a rock. I saw blood and realized that my nose wasn't just bleeding…it was broken, too. Also, all of the dirt around me was kicked up and I had an asthma attack. I was picked up and thrown into a different wall, landing on my side. There was a low growl and we looked to see Frus. Otto shoved me into the wall and approached him, ready to fight.

Beastfire: Next time is the fight! Please review! Emec, write the fight soon!


	14. Really Mad

Chapter 14

Otto started to get into a fighting stance, but Frus was already rushing forward at an unimaginable speed. He delivered a kick to Otto's chest and the monkey flew back into a wall, actually causing it to cave in slightly. Frus walked over cautiously, and suddenly Otto jumped forward and slashed him across the chest. Frus didn't slow down from the wound and he grabbed Otto and threw him towards the entrance. He was caught by Saga, who held him in a steely grip. Frus rushed forward and surprisingly, removed the amulet from his neck and placed it on Otto.

At the moment the amulet was around his neck, Otto began to shriek in pain. Steam began to rise from his skin, and he struggled to escape Saga's hold so that he could get the amulet off. Then, he opened his mouth and began a long, low wail. As he did so, dark energy exited his mouth and began to shape itself in the air. When the last wisps of energy slid away, they charged Otto with a burst of power and he broke free. He immediately pulled the amulet from his neck and hurled it towards the back of the room. Vrust rushed over and caught it, and he went over to Ivy and placed it on her. Frus was concerned with the dark energy, which was taking the shape of a huge man with the horns of a bull.

"Separating us will do you no good," came the voice that seemed to be dripping with evil. Eyes and other features began to appear on Eganrac's body, seemingly drawn in place in purple ink. His eyes were two glowing points of purple light.

Frus yelled a quick and simple plan to the others. "Father, I need you to protect Ivy. Saga and Sprx, incapacitate Otto. The rest of us will fight Eganrac!"

Frus created a sword and charged it with energy, then slashed at Eganrac. However, the gash simply healed before his eyes! Then, Ygrene fired an energy blast, to similar effect. Meanwhile, Saga was having enough trouble to attack Otto. Somehow, his link to Eganrac hadn't been broken, and the green monkey had a dark energy shield, making it impossible to touch him. However, Otto had no such problems. In no time, Saga had several cuts on him, as did Sprx, although the red monkey was doing a better job of dodging.

Then, Maria Sangretti used her telekinesis and hurled everything that she could find at Eganrac, and at the same time Ygrene fired a blast. Eganrac blew apart, into nothing but a formless black mist. It immediately started to reform, but when Sprx tried to use his Magna Tingler Blast on Otto, it bypassed whatever shield that the green monkey had and hit. When Eganrac finished reforming, he was missing his let arm!

Eganrac sent dark energy blasts at everyone in the room except for Otto, Ivy, and Vrust. Frus and Maria were able to dodge out of the way, but the others took major hits. Frus jumped forward and began to slash Eganrac as fast as he could, in as many places as he could. Maria hurled some debris at Eganrac and Ygrene fired another blast. Eganrac broke apart, and Saga charged his fist with energy and struck Otto. This time Eganrac reformed with both his left arm and his right leg gone. He created a mist of dark energy to slow down everyone's movements, then began to make the ground explode underneath them. Frus was hurled into a wall, and it looked like he was knocked out, at least. However, Maria Sangretti had seen such an attack before, and had prepared herself. She struck with her telekinesis again, but it didn't seem to do more than confuse Eganrac. The monster turned hit attention towards her.

Suddenly, Frus sprang forward, landing on Eganrac's back. Frus began to claw at the monster, charging each slash with energy. Eganrac couldn't maintain his mist and dislodge Frus at the same time, so he had to let it vanish. This allowed the others to move freely again, and as soon as Eganrac had thrown Frus off, Ygrene slashed at the demon, then fired a blast at him. Saga, who had been protecting himself and Sprx with his energy while the mist had been in place making dodging an issue, charged his palm with energy, then grabbed Otto by the forehead. He slammed Otto into the ground as hard as he could, and Sprx followed up with a Magno Ball Blazer. This time, Eganrac reformed as just a head and torso.

The dark creature shifted slightly and became a huge wyrm. He fired mouth blast at everyone, no longer trying to protect Otto. He used all of his extra energy to protect himself, and all attacks proved useless. A roar of pain was heard as a blast burned its way through Ygrene's side and the dragon went down, not dead but severely injured. Saga focused his energy into the most powerful shield that he could, holding it in front of himself. Sprx climbed onto Saga's back where he could be protected by the shield as well. However, with each hit the shield wavered more and more. Frus was dodging and attacking, almost insane with fury, using any opportunity he could to try and attack. Whenever he was hit, he simply got up and continued. Maria was focusing on dodging, and hadn't taken a hit from the blasts. Few shots reached over where Vrust was watching over Ivy, but Frus' father had created a huge shield.

Meanwhile, Otto was dodging the attacks more gracefully than anyone else, since he was able to sense where Eganrac was going to attack a split second before he did so. Eganrac was still very much linked to the green monkey. Otto snuck up behind Saga and Sprx and tacked Saga, disrupting his concentration and destroying the shield. A blast hurtled towards them, and Sprx jumped in the way. Otto tried to attack, but Saga punched him, knocking him to the ground for a moment. Eganrac sensed the attack on Otto, and turned towards Saga. Saga sensed the blast coming and grabbed Otto, placing him in the path. The green monkey screamed in pain, unimaginable pain, and Eganrac's screamed echoed him. Frus attacked Eganrac again, adding to whatever was being done to the demon. Maria followed suit, using her telekinesis to hurl the rubble caused by the fight at Eganrac. Frus powered up his claw and struck Eganrac as hard as he could, right between the eyes. The beast of darkness seemed to fall apart, but not enough. Maria stopped using her telekinesis to throw things at Eganrac and instead used it in another way. She began to pull the demon apart, causing bursts of energy as bits and pieces were removed. Soon, a purple orb was revealed, just inches away from the claw that Frus had jammed inside Eganrac's skull. Frus added as much energy as he could to the claw and forced it forward, straight into the orb. The moment it struck, Eganrac could no longer hold together. The demon exploded in a massive burst of energy. Maria, being the closest to Eganrac other than Frus, was hurled into the wall by the energy. She stared in horror, sure that Frus could not survive such an explosion. But when the smoke cleared, no only was Frus still there, he was standing. There were clumps of fur missing, revealing dark sking underneath; he was quite bruised, and bleeding from several placed. The golden energy had grown dim, and he was breathing hard. His left arm had to be broken in several places, and his right hand was burned to the point that it was amazing that he was able to move it so that the preferred finger was straight up. The only thing that wasn't damaged was his eyes, which were glowing red as he stared with unadulterated fury at one being in particular. For the only other creature standing in the room was Otto.


	15. Otto Normal Again

Beastfire: Here's the new chapter...

Ivy and Vrust watched as Otto was charged upon by Frus. The meerkat was still lying on her side, too weak to get up. She looked up at Vrust.

"Hey," she began, getting the Ethyal's attention.

He looked down at her.

"Yes?" he asked gently.

"Dude, I thig you forgod sobdig," she said to the best of her ability, since her nose had been broken.

He understood, though, and listened to her.

"What'd I forget?"

"You forgod do ubdie me."

Vrust mentally smacked himself.

"Sorry," he told her, rolling the mutant onto her front.

He took a good look at the bonds. They went from her left wrist to her right elbow and vice versa, as well as everywhere in between. If he didn't handle this delicately, he could inadvertantly slash an artery, rather defeating the purpose of protecting her. He carefully slid a claw into the center of the biggest knot and pulled up. The bonds slipped off and Vrust helped Ivy up to a sitting position as she rubbed her lower arms. They continued to watch the fight.

Frus was on Otto's back, clawing like mad. The green monkey wasn't normal yet, the spell not having worn off. He made a grab for Frus, but was greeted by a set of teeth going into his hand. He made a vain attempt to wrench the mongoose from his body and jumped to the floor, rolling around and hoping to crush him. However, the claws only dug in deeper as he did so.

While the fight continued, Maria was examining the others. She and Vrust were in the best condition, but the latter was preoccupied. She looked at Sprx and Saga first and ripped pieces from the skirt of her dress as bandages. The red monkey had a pleased, but perverted, expression.

"Y'know, I've always been a leg man," he purred.

As Maria wrapped the wound, she heard the comment and wrapped it a little too tightly. She worked on Saga next, but he wasn't hitting on her...

"Hey, handsome," she said seductively.

Saga didn't know what to say. Maria finished with him and decided to look at Ygrene. He had several really bad burns in his side as well as a really deep cut. She winced as she saw these and noticed that he had a fresh gash in his tail. Now ripping the fabric making up her sleeves, she used it to wrap the wound.

Otto was becoming desperate. Frus was getting more and more ferocious as he clawed away at the evil green monkey. He quickly reached up with his tail and wrapped it tightly around the mongoose, ripping him from his back. He flung Frus into the wall...the same wall at which Ivy and Vrust were watching. He landed in Ivy's lap and she noticed that he was becoming exhausted. That was when she decided to give him some encouragement. Taking his face in her hands, she began kissing him. He began to feel a bit stronger as he returned the kiss and got back to his feet, returning to the fight. Vrust smiled as he witnessed their kiss.

"Back for more?" hissed Otto.

He then laughed out loud...until Frus grabbed his tongue with the grace, skill, and stealth of a ninja. Otto tried to strike, but each blow was dodged. Frus leapt at his face and began scratching at it. No matter what he tried to remove him, nothing worked. Frus discovered a strange marking on the back of the monkey's head and plunged his claws into that as well. As soon as his claws made contact, there was a bright light that washed over the whole area, temporarily blinding all.

When the light died down, Otto's eyes were no longer blood red, but their usual black. He was now unconscious as well. Frus made his way back over to his father and Ivy and collapsed upon arrival. During the long flash, Ivy had accidentally hit her head on the wall behind her and knocked herself out, as well as giving herself a concussion.

Maria and Vrust looked at the young couple. Ivy's great great grandmother seemed worried about Frus.

"Is he-" she was cut off by the sound of snoring from a certain half-Ethyal.

"I think he'll be just fine," chuckled Vrust.

"Why don't I take all of you to my place?" Maria asked all of those that were conscious. "There you can get some food and the dragon can get those other wounds looked at. As for these two," she gestured at Ivy and Frus, "they'll get the medical attention they so desperately need...after we clean them up first, of course."

The others nodded in agreement. Saga picked up Otto and Maria reached down and scooped up Ivy and Frus carefully, so as not to harm them any further. She led the others back through the portal...or tried to. When Eganrac was destroyed, so was the portal.

Beastfire: That's chapter 15! Please review! Emec, write that new chapter soon!


	16. No Luck

Sorry, this took me so long! I wanted to add to it, but I couldn't think of anything!

Chapter 16

The portal was gone. After everything that had happened, there was no doorway back to the main part of the realm. Saga gently set down Otto and began to strike at where the portal should have been, determined to break it open. It was a childish attempt, but Saga couldn't think of anything better at the moment.

In the meantime, Maria, Vrust, and Sprx began to talk about what they might be able to do.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Sprx.

"I don't know. I mean, it's not like this has happened before," said Vrust.

"It isn't often that something that's dead dies again, let alone being killed inside its own territory. This could take years to figure out, if we can at all," stated Maria.

"You know that those of us who are alive can't survive that long. It's not like we have food here with us," said Sprx. "Not to mention, both Ivy and Otto could die soon if we can't help them more."

Thee was a long, uncomfortable silence, then Vrust spoke up.

"Do you think that it might be possible for us to create a new doorway?" he asked.

"You know that spirit doors have to be started from the main area. We can't just stat one from here," answered Maria. Then, she heard a loud cracking sound. She, Sprx, and Vrust looked over at Saga, who had made a tear and was struggling to hold it open. It was clearly unstable, far too much so to get through, but any king of rip in reality was nearly impossible to make.

"I think that this area was weakened when Eganrac messed with his door," said Saga. Suddenly he ran out of energy and collapsed, and the rip closed up. While Saga rested, Vrust, Sprx, and Maria planned on what to do next. Eventually it was decided. They would have Saga try and reopen the rip he'd made before, after which Vrust and Maria could try and use it as a link to the main area and create a doorway to one of their territories. When Saga woke up, they told him about the plan and put it into action.


	17. Escape, Kinda

Beastfire: Here's chappie 17! WAHOO!

Saga prepared to make another attempt at reopening that rip. Maria had decided to sit in the corner, holding her great granddaughter as though she were her own child. A sound was heard over where Otto was. The green monkey was rubbing the back of his head in pain as he stood up and asked what happened. Sprx explained the whole thing and Otto noticed Ivy.

"I did that?" he asked in disbelief.

He moved a random strand of hair out of Ivy's face. Then he saw Frus, who happened to be twitching with a strange grin on his face as he slept, still snoring.

"Didn't Frus do anything to stop me?" asked Otto.

"He couldn't," said Vrust. "You ran off with her after his collapse. But when he woke up, he tracked the two of you down."

"Oh."

Maria heard a soft groan from in her arms. Ivy began to wake up. Vrust walked over to them.

"How do you feel, Ivy?" he asked.

"Sdill hurd...ad hudgry," she replied.

"Sorry, but we have no food. If we did, I would gladly give you as much as you could eat."

"Bloody nose?" Otto asked, noticing the dried blood caked around the nasal area.

"Broged, agdually," said Ivy.

Maria looked at her sympathetically.

"You poor thing," she said, cradling her.

A loud yawn came from where Frus had been asleep. The mongoose's eyes opened slowly and he stood up, then walked over to Ivy and Maria.

"Welgob do the ladd of the livig," getting odd looks from the others. "Ogay...dead. Habby dow?"

Frus smiled at her and would havegiven her ahug, but he couldn't move his arms well enough...in fact, he couldn't move his left at all. His right just hurt a lot. Hejust looked at Maria, who picked him up and set him on her lap.

"So...what the heck is Saga doing?" asked Frus.

Ivy shrugged and Ygrene looked over at them.

"He's trying to reopen this tear he made in the wall so thatyour father and Ivy's great great grandmother can try to link to the area so that theycan get the rest of us someplace different...where we can probably get the both of you patched up." The sound of a growling stomach reached his ears. "And fed."

They heard the loud crack again. Saga had gotten another rip opened. Maria quickly set Ivy and Frus down on the floor andran with Vrust over to Saga. The demon hunter used her telekinesis to hold it open while Vrust got out, then her. On the way out, though, the tear began to close...right when Maria was going through. She was now stuck in it. The others found this to be amusing.

Sprx seemed mesmerizedby the sight of Maria's butt. He walked up and goosed her...only to bekicked in the face as a reflex. Vrust snickered and shook his head. He walked up to her and shook his head. He walked up to her and grabbed ontoboth of her hands and pulled. It took a while, but Mariawas finally free and the hole finished closing.

Maria and Vrust reached the main area. They'd decided on creating a doorway to Maria's territory, as it was bigger. They had to put a portal from where the others were, which was surprisingly simple.

Just moments later, the two ghosts came back through the portal. Maria walked over to Ivy and Frus and put Frus on his shoulder, but held onto Ivy, making sure not to agitate the meerkat's broken legs. They went through first, then Saga, then Sprx and Otto, then Ygrene, then Vrust.

Upon entering, the others were amazed. The whole place was red, and mounted upon the walls were thousands of demon heads...trophies of every dream she'd ever slain. She quickly took the two smallest of the group to another room to get them cleaned up, attended to, and fed. However, one thing was certain...they shouldn't attempt to leave until everyone has recovered.

Beastfire: Hope you enjoyed it and that you review. Emec, write chapter 18 soon! See ya!


	18. Rest

Chapter 18

Having defeated the evil Eganrac and returned Otto to normal, our heroes deserved (and needed) a little time to rest. As Ivy and Frus were taken care of, and Otto and Ygrene got themselves looked at as well, the less injured members of the team found different ways to amuse themselves. Well, actually, Maria and Vrust were taking care of the injured members, so it was only Sprx and Saga who messed around.

Sprx followed Maria around, sometimes helping but usually just staring at her. Luckily for him Maria didn't have time to set him straight. Meanwhile, Saga was looking at all of the demon heads. And also poking them for no apparent reason. Eventually, he heard a loud thwak and Sprx stumbled into the room with a red mark on his face.

"Things are looking up for Ivy and Frus," he said. Saga grinned, then went back to messing with stuff. "What're you doing?" asked Sprx.

"I'm bored. I can't really help with healing people. I mean, I was able to heal the few injuries I sustained, but my powers would try to rip through other stuff," explained Saga.

Sprx shrugged, then wandered around, looking at suff. It wasn't like there was much else to do. Or rather, there wasn't much else that couldn't potentially lead him and his friends into more danger. There was no telling what could happen if he went and looked around outside of Maria's territory.

Meanwhile, Ivy, Otto, and Frus were resting. Otto was doing the best by far; it was surprising that while he was evil, and fighting Frus, he'd actually lost. The green monkey was bandaged and experiencing some pain, but he was able to sit up and even walk around. Actually, Frus could pull that off if he really tried, but Maria and his father had both told him not to try just yet. Ivy was in the worst shape of all, but she would be okay. At the time, she was sleeping in a bed Maria had prepared for her. Vrust was sitting nearby, just in case anyone needed anything. Ygrene, who had waited while the others had been being fixed up, was getting his wounds properly taken care of by Maria.

Back with Saga and Sprx, the two were playing rock-paper-scissors. So far, Saga had won twelve out of thirteen games. This was because Sprx kept playing rock. Over and over and over.

"Sprx, are you even trying?" asked Saga.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, uh, yeah, I'm just thinking about…well, you know me," said Sprx.

"Why do you act like that, anyway? It seems to get people mad at you a lot," said Saga.

"Well, uh…I just…shut up!" said Sprx. Saga shrugged, then went off into a corner. He began to whistle a song. It was somewhat sad, but not terribly so. Saga didn't know why he knew only sad songs, but that was the way things were.

Uh…that's all I got right now. Please review!


	19. SALAMI OF DOOM!

Beastfire: Here's chappie 19! YAYNESS!

Vrust was sitting nearby when Ivy began to wake up. He looked over just in time to see those big blue eyes open.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Yo," replied Ivy.

"You're probably hungry, correct?"

Ivy nodded inresponse as Vrust left to get her something to eat. While he was doing that, Maria walked in with a jar of something. She sat next to Ivy, opened the jar, and rubbed some of the contents on the meerkat's nose, making her sneeze.

"What is that stuff?" asked Ivy. "Aw DUDE! I can talk right again!"

Maria laughed.

"That's because that's what it's designed to do. Your nose is still on the mend, but at least you can speak correctly."

Vrust returned with a tray that contained some sort of pasta and a bottle of vodka. He set it down by Ivy (who began eating as soon as he set it down) and walked over to Frus' bed. Frus was a little on the frustrated side.

"Can I try getting up now, father?" he asked.

"I don't think you should, son," replied Vrust.

Frus sulked and Vrust just handed him some food and turned to leave. Maria left as well, leaving both Ivy and Frus alone with each other.

"So," Ivy began. "How's your arm?"

Frus looked at his left arm. It was in a sling, but was gradually healing. He just shrugged in reply.

"Could be better," he said. "You?"

"I think my eye's cleared up."

Frus looked and saw that she no longer had a black eye. A slight smile crossed his face, but as he thought, it gradually died down.

"Hey, look at it this way," said Ivy, noticing his state."At least you probably have the ability to walk, but not the permission. Even if I was allowed to try, I couldn't."

Frus thought about this and realized that Ivy was right. As he mulled that over, Otto was in the kitchen, getting some food. He had a stack about twice his size.

Meanwhile, Maria had decided to take a bath. As she did so, humming to herself, a red tail with a metal tip stole her clothes and disappeared with them. She didn't notice. She DID, however, notice the pair of black eyes staring at her moments later. The demon hunter knew of only one there who would do so...Sprx. She growled, wrapped her towel around herself, picked up the first thing she could find (which happened to be a salami), and tore after the red monkey.

Ygrene was building a model of a house using silverware. He had just added the last fork when disaster in the form of Maria chasing Sprx struck. The whole model crashed to the floor and Ygrene, who had put much time and effort into it, was mad. He flew after them, yelling profanities in every language he'd ever learned.

Otto was busy eating when the three ran directly at him. He ran ahead of Sprx, not wanting to be run over. All of them ran into Vrust, who didn't wish to be run over either. Saga noticed them all and chased after Ygrene to hopefully learn what the problem was. Ivy and Frus were talking as the others ran past.

"What the (bleep)?" both asked.

"Is it just me," began Frus, "or is Maria attacking Sprx with lunchmeat?"

"YEAH! GET 'IM, GRANDMA!" Ivy shouted.

She and Frus watched as the chase continued...outside of Maria's territory...

Beastfire: Uh-oh...what's gonna happen now? Will Maria catch Sparky? Will any of them notice they're not in Maria's anymore? And what will Ivy and Frus do...? Please review! Hey, Emec, update soon!


	20. More Demons

Chapter 20

Sprx ran through the darkness outside Maria's territory. He wasn't sure whether to fear for his life or laugh and grin. Neither Maria nor Ygrene was paying attention to where they were going. Maria didn't even realize Ygrene was following. Saga was easily keeping up, basically jogging, really. He just wanted to see what had happened and where this was going. He was wondering why they were leaving Maria's territory, but he assumed that Maria knew what she was doing. That, unfortunately, was not the case.

If only Eganrac had been the only demon in the land of the dead, it may have been safe. However, now that the big baddie was out of the way, lesser monsters were coming out of the woodwork. To make matters worse, they could sense that Maria was a demonslayer. A demonslayer who was vulnerable.

A blast of energy was fired directly at Maria. Saga, as the only one who saw it, rushed forward, grabbed her, and jumped, getting them both out of the way. Ygrene forgot about his model and turned towards the new threat. Sprx followed suit, but he looked up really quickly first. Saga landed, still hanging onto Maria. For the first time, he fully noticed that she was just wearing a towel, and he let go, blushing slightly. He focused his attention on where the shot had come from. Whoever had attacked was being cautious, but Saga rushed over where the blast had come from and looked around.

As soon as Saga left, several monsters attacked. Maria used her telekinesis, and Sprx used his Magno Ball Blazer, but the creatures were numerous and agile. Ygrene fired a huge blast and managed to hit one before it could get out of the way. It flew off and crashed into something; it was knocked out. The big dragon was about to try that again when four or five of the demons struck him at once. By combining their powers, one was able to possess Ygrene. His eyes went dark and he turned his head towards Sprx and Maria. Licking is fangs, he went after the red monkey. The first time, Maria threw the salami, which se still had for some reason, into his mouth, and the dragon swallowed it in a single gulp. However, Maria couldn't leave the rest of the demons to keep attacking. She had to hope that Sprx could outrun Ygrene until the dragon was able to force the evil spirit away and regain control.

Meanwhile, Saga was having troubles of his own. He had fallen into a trap, and there were countless monsters around him. Apparently, they considered him and Maria to be the primary threats among the group. Saga put up a shield and trued to come up with a plan. After a moment, he broke his shield, causing a flash. He jumped backwards, blasting at the demons that had been around him. Then, he was struck with a conundrum. He could go back to Maria's territory, where Vrust had doubled back to when they exited in the first place and there was more room to get out of the way. He could get help from Vrust and maybe get a weapon, which would allow him to save energy while fighting. But he couldn't leave the others!

"I should have kept on traveling alone," muttered Saga.He turned and headed back towards where he had left the others.

Please review.


	21. Things Go Downhill

Beastfire: Hope you enjoy chapter 21!

Back in Maria's territory, Ivy and Frus had run out of stuff to talk about, so they were bored again. With nothing better to do, they were locked together in a staring contest, neither one showing signs of blinking. Ivy was determined to make him crack, though. Her staring unconsciously turned into the use of the Bambi eyes. Frus' concentration began to waiver. Finally, he blinked. Ivy just smirked. Soon, Vrust walked in.

"So, how are you doing?" he asked both of them.

"Not bad," they replied in unison.

"Just kinda bored," said Frus.

Vrust thought of something that would both cure their boredom and make them really happy. He went to the bed Ivy was in, picked her up gently, and put her in the same one as Frus. They began to kiss immediately, and Vrust decided to leave them alone.

Meanwhile, Maria found herself surrounded by monsters. Most in her situation would either cower in fear, or have their poker face on. She, however, had a smirk on her face and was the very picture of cockiness.

"Do you honestly think you slackers can beat me?" she chuckled...right before taking 3/4 of them out in one kick while the others tried to beat on her.

She threw those ones off her back and was easily gaining the upper hand, until another huge demon came by and grabbed her by the throat.

"Hello, Maria," he said. "Remember me?"

Maria would have answered, were she able to breathe. She kicked the demon, forcing him to let go of her throat. However, he just wrapped his arms around her in a way that she couldn't escape, hand over her mouth. She was able to free her mouth just enough to scream for help before it was trapped beneath his hand again and he started to drag her off. No matter what she tried, she couldn't free herself.

Saga was experiencing some problems as well. More monsters had surrounded him, and he wasn't as experienced as Maria with them, so it was problematic. He had some success, though. He saw Sprx and Ygrene run past him.

Sprx was running for his life from a possessed dragon. Ygrene was trying to fight the demon inside of him, but was having a hard time. Sprx hung a left at one point and ran back for Maria's territory. Luckily, he was so fast, he went unnoticed.

Otto had run out of Maria's territory, but got lost. He was currently in an area filled with rock stars that died in plane crashes...and we all know there're a LOT of them! Sprx looked around on his way back and saw Saga fighting still and Maria being taken by the demon...the one that killed her 113 years before. He decided that the best option was to go ask Vrust for help and he ran back in...unaware that a snake monster had followed. He headed straight for where Vrust was, while the snake went into Ivy and Frus' room. They'd finished making out, when the snake slithered in. It was about 30 feet long. Ivy clung to Frus and screamed at the top of her lungs.

Beastfire: Heehee...CLIFFY! I am so evil...well, please review and Emec, update soon!


	22. Message

Chapter 22

In an attempt to protect Ivy, Frus attempted to summon steel and create a shield. However, his powers must have been on the fritz, because he got tinfoil. Luckily, Sprx and Vrust showed up in moments, having heard Ivy scream. The snake didn't have time to do more than rip a hole in the foil before three huge chains grabbed around it and pulled it back. It squirmed out of the chains, only to get a Magna Tingler Blast to the face. As it shook its head in an attempt to clear it, a number of huge blades appeared and began to slash at it. It dodged the first few strikes and spat poison at Sprx. Vrust created a shield for the monkey, then two swords. He jumped forward and delivered two slashes to the snake. The floating blades began to strike at it again, but it continued fighting.

Meanwhile, Saga was trying to fight off the demons and get back to Maria. She needed help, and Saga was the only one still in the area. 'I have no choice,' he thought. 'I can't try to conserve energy. I have to destroy everything except Maria, then grab her and race back to her territory.' Saga put his plan into action, jumping away from the monsters that were around him and towards Maria. They attacked him, but Saga clenched his teeth, repeating to himself that this was his best chance. Charging his fist with energy, he began to punch the arms of the demon that was attacking Maria. It loosened its grip and Maria broke free. Saga grabbed her, then prepared a super attack. 'Eighty percent ought to do it,' thought Saga. He sent a wave of energy out in all directions, pushing back the nearest, strongest demon but vaporizing the others. Before the remaining demon could strike back, Saga blasted away from it and towards Maria's territory, using the last of his energy to increase his speed. He found Ygrene trying to break through. The dragon slammed his head into the door, pulled it back, and prepared to attack again. During that moment, Saga opened the door, he and Maria went in, and they closed the door.

Upon entering Maria's territory, Saga passed out. Maria saw Vrust and Sprx beating the snot out of a huge snake. With Maria's help, it was over in a few more seconds. Maria moved the snake into a corner using her telekinesis, then placed Saga onto a bed. After that, she told the others what had happened.

Outside, Ygrene was lying down, thinking about how to get in. Or rather, the demon was

thinking about that. The real Ygrene was thinking about how to banish the thing. Ten, he noticed that the his body was scratching the floor with a claw. The demon wasn't really thinking about it, it was just couldn't think of what to do. Ygrene made that claw work on scratching a message to the others. He started to tell them that if they could knock him out, the demon's concentration could be distorted long enough for him to oust it from his body. However, he paused when a dark shadow appeared.

The demon-possessed Ygrene looked up and saw its leader. "It seems that our enemies are more resourceful than we thought. And now we've spoiled our element of surprise. We have planning to do," he said. He and Ygrene walked away, but the real Ygrene kept control of his claw, making a line showing where they went.

In Maria's territory, our heroes were making plans of their own. With Frus, Ivy, Saga, and Ygrene out for the moment, it was just Maria, Sprx, and Vrust, and Otto if they could find him. The only good news was that Maria had gotten a chance to get properly dressed, making it easier for Sprx to pay attention. Suddenly, a knock came at the door. It wasn't like the pounding that had been going on, but a normal tapping. Vrust shrugged and went over to the door. He created a sword and opened the door a crack. When he saw the green monkey, who had no evil grin or weird eyes, he let him in. Otto grabbed him, muttering about a lot of weird people whining in verse about how they died. Vrust pushed hum back, and Otto saw the grim expressions and asked what was going on.

"Okay. Four of us against unknown numbers of them. Things could be worse," said Maria.

Please review!


	23. Pipes

Beastfire: Chapter 23 is here! Enjoy!

Everyone contemplated how to separate Ygrene from the demon inside of him. That was when Ivy thought of something.

"DUDE! I think I have an idea!" she exclaimed, causing all eyes to be on her.

Sprx gasped in shock.

"You're actually thinking for once?" he quipped.

Ivy just flipped him the bird. "Shut up, Sparky. Anyway, I was doing some reading yesterday when Frus was sleeping and I found the second worst demon in this place. It went by the name Muerto and was the final demon killed by my great great grandma. This one is powerful enough to both possess someone and attack another person."

"And?"

"Well, if you can destroy the physical form's eardrums, you can get rid of the other half too."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Sprx demanded.

Maria thought now. She knew of a way, but had to choose carefully who would do so. They needed someone with the vocal chords and the sheer talent to blow the eardrums out of whack. Who did she know of, though?

"Can anyone here sing a really high note? High enough to break something?" she asked.

Nobody answered. Finally, Frus spoke up.

"Well, I know Ivy can hit the high notes when she sings, but I don't know if she can go that high."

Maria looked at her descendent.

"Okay, then. Let's hear you try it," said Maria, putting a crystal glass next to the bed.

Ivy had to warm up, first. Then, she sang a REALLY high note and held it for a while, shattering the glass. Maria grinned. She had now found who she'd bring to destroy the demon. Needless to say, she was quite proud. Before she could say anything, Saga began to wake up.

"What was that?" he asked, groggily.

Maria looked over at him and walked to his bed.

"That," she announced proudly, "was my great great granddaughter!"

"Oh...," said Saga. "Nice pipes."

Ivy smirked and then stuck her tongue out at Sprx. Sprx rolled his eyes.

"Now," said Maria, "I'd like for Ivy to come with me, as w-"

"But she's hurt, remember?" Frus reminded her.

"Yes, I know that," Maria replied. "However, I know I can't hit any notes that high and it's one of the only ways to utterly destroy this demon. His hearing is extremely sensitive. I promise I won't let anything happen to her. Would you like to come along to make sure I keep this promise?"

Frus nodded.

"Alright. Saga, Vrust, Sprx, and Otto...you should come as well."

They all agreed and Maria reformatted a gun holster so that it could carry Ivy and Frus both comfortably. Once she was finished, they went on their way to find Ygrene and Muerto.

Beastfire: Hope you enjoyed chapter 24! Please review, and Emec, update soon!


	24. That Demon is an Idiot

Chapter 24

Saga got up and immediately fell back down. He shook his head and shakily got to his feet. Vrust looked up at him.

"I only have aboutfour percent of my energy right now," Saga explained.

"Can you fight?" asked Vrust.

"Yeah, just give me a weapon. How about an axe?" requested Saga. Vrust created a double-blade axe and gave it to Saga. Then the two of them joined the others at the door, where they were preparing to leave.

Exiting Maria's territory, our heroes noticed the message carved into the ground and the line leading away. Although there were gaps, it was easy enough to follow. Whether it was a clue from their friend or a trap, it was their best lead at the moment. They decided to follow it for a time and tread cautiously. After a few minutes a screeching sound was heard. Most of the group stooped and stood alert and ready for battle, but Saga spoke up. The weight of the axe was a bit much for him at the moment, and he had allowed it to drag.

"It won't happen again," he muttered. He put the weight of the weapon on his shoulder and tried to keep up with the others. Vrust offered to make a smaller axe, but Saga's expression quashed that idea.

Meanwhile, Muerto was telling his minions where they were to be when next they attacked. At his side was Ygrene. Around them were dozens of horrible creatures that seemed as if they had been torn from the very nightmares of mortals and empowered by Hell's fire. None of them could compare to their leader, however.

As Muerto turned away from the others for a moment to think, he noticed a strange mark on the ground. Inspecting it more closely, he saw that it was a line that extended back the way he had come.

"You fool!" he shouted at Ygrene. He pushed the possessed dragon away from the center of the collection of demons and away from the position of authority. The other demons began to strike at him, knowing that he had lost their leader's respect. However, Muerto sent them a cold stare and they backed off. The big demon strode up to the dragon. "You idiot! They could have easily followed that back to us! Can't you control the bodies you take over!"

"But I…his will is quite strong, master, I…" weakly protested the demon in Ygrene.

"If they attack us now, my plan will be worthless!" hissed Muerto.

"Then…you're screwed," said a voice. Muerto and the other demons looked up and saw our heroes. Before they could react, Saga sprang forward and cleaved the head of a minotaur-like demon. At the same time, some metal spikes flew through another two demons, several heavy objects flew into a group of demons, a blast of energy stuck one, and green saws cut one in half. There were still many left, but a great blow had been stuck.

Please review!


	25. Short Stuff's Packin' Heat!

Beastfire: Here's chappie 25! YAYAYAY!

As Ivy and Frus witnessed the fight, both were not overly pleased. Neither of them were able to fight, and Vrust and Otto noticed. The Ethyal quickly created a bow and several arrows out of metal and handed them to Ivy, while the green monkey gave a small gun to Frus that he'd just assembled. Frus examined it.

"What the?" he asked, confused.

"It's called a Noisy Cricket!" Otto yelled back.

"I think he's seen 'Men in Black' too many times..." said Ivy.

A demon came over to them both and Ivy shot an arrow right between its eyes.

"Nice shot," Frus told her.

"Actually, I was aiming way lower..."

"Oh..."

She shot off several more arrows, hitting every demon she aimed at. Frus was scratching his head in confusion, wondering how to work the firearm. He pulled the trigger and actually hit something. Muerto and Ygrene noticed.

"This is your chance to redeem yourself," Muerto told Ygrene.

Ygrene nodded, as Ivy yelled over at Muerto.

"YO, UGLY! GET YOUR (bleep)IN' (bleep) OUTTA OUR FRIEND!"

"Silence the small one."

Ygrene nodded again and started over, then the real Ygrene stopped the body. Muerto glared and the demon took over again. He got over to Ivy, Frus, and Maria and reached a claw out to get Ivy. However, Maria looked just in time, creating a telekinetic shield around both Ivy and Frus. She struck out with her power to knock Ygrene unconscious, creating a really strong wind around everyone as the demon came out of the dragon. However, they still needed to destroy Muerto, and Ivy was ready to blow that sucker's eardrums out. They'd need to get through this wind first...

Beastfire: I know, it's short, but it's all I can think of. Please review, and Emec, update soon!


	26. Siren

Chapter 26

The wind raged, and our heroes stopped their attack for a moment, some of the smaller ones struggling to stay on the ground. Muerto noticed this and used his power to fuel the wind so that it wouldn't dissipate. The demon began to slowly walk towards them, thinking that he would eliminate them one by one.

Saga looked around, and though his vision was obscured by the dust and dirt that was whirling around, he could see the big demon moving towards his friends. Not only that, but Ivy couldn't sing with hurricane-force winds going. Walking cautiously, Saga went over to a small, weak demon. It was huddled on the ground and trying to keep from being swept away. Saga grabbed it and lifted it up. Then, strangely, he allowed it to possess him. No, that wasn't it. He engulfed the demon. Saga lifted his arm and focused, and it was cloaked in dark energy. A familiar chill went through him. Saga lifted both arms and sent energy around in all directions. The wind began to die down, and Maria caught on and used her telekinesis to pull up walls of stone from the ground, for windbreakers. Before Muerto could try to bring the wind back up, Ivy sang a super high note.

It started as a normal high note, one that could be sung by almost anyone, but it steadily grew higher. It became high enough to cause glass to shatter, and Muerto began to yell in pain. Soon, Ivy's voice became like the siren song told of in ancient myths. Our heroes were holding their ears, the sound being beyond the threshold of pain. Muerto was on his knees, screaming in pain and rage, that he would be defeated like this. Blood was gushing from his ears.

Eventually, Ivy's voice gave out. But the damage was done. Muerto had been reduced to little more than his minions. Unable to think clearly, he searched for some path of escape. He rushed towards Otto, trying to possess him, but the green monkey blocked the intrusion by will alone. He said something like "Not this time," but Muerto couldn't hear. In rage, he attacked the monkey, and though he left a gash that turned black immediately, Otto remained standing and sliced through him. Muerto staggered backwards; he began to receive attacks from all sides. Otto continued slashing at him, Sprx blasted at him, Maria used her telekinesis, Vrust sent various sharp things at him, and Frus and Ivy shot at him. Muerto began to fade away, and it was clear that he was close to death. Suddenly most of the attacks stopped. Maria looked at the others quizzically, then realized that they wanted to let her get the final hit. With a huge burst of telekinetic energy, she finished it. However, things weren't as good as they seemed.

"Uh, guys? I think those guys are angry at us for killing their leader," stated Ivy. The others

looked around and saw countless glowing eyes staring at them.

Please review!


	27. Healing Rage

Beastfire: Here is chapter 27. Enjoy!

For a moment, nobody did much of anything; just stood there. Then, Ivy took a shot at the biggest demon there, killing him instantly. The hoard of demons jumped at them all, one of them going for where Ivy and Frus were. Before Maria or anyone else could do much of anything, it slashed at the gun holster containing the two small mammals and brought it to the ground. It tried to get Ivy, but she was still wearing the amulet, so its hand began to burn upon contact. So, it had to settle for the next best thing. In Frus' condition, he couldn't fight back. Ivy noticed and became steadily angrier. Her wounds, fueled by rage, instantly healed and she hovered a few feet off the ground, eyes glowing blue with an aura of blue flames around her. She would NOT allow this demon to do anything to Frus!

"What the? What just happened?" asked Frus.

Ivy didn't answer, just pounced on the demon. The demon didn't stand a chance. It dropped Frus on the ground as it tried to fend off the enraged mutant. She kept using the amulet on it and, best of all, it couldn't touch her. Frus backed up slightly and decided to watch. It was rather enjoyable for him to see his girlfriend beating the living tar out of this demon. He looked over to see his father fighting a few at one time and Saga fighting a few more. Maria was casually blasting them with her telekinesis. Sprx and Otto were double teaming others. Ygrene was starting to wake up.

The dragon's vision was blurred and he was the very picture of not-all-there-quite-yet. He began to slowly pull himself to his feet, when he saw a demon being sent flying at him. He ducked then made a second attempt. He was able to stagger over to where Frus was watching. Instantly, he noticed something.

"Where'd Ivy go?" he asked.

Frus pointed to where Ivy was fighting the demon. Ygrene's eyes widened.

"How did- But I thought she was-"

"I'm not quite sure. This didn't happen until that demon threatened me. I noticed she didn't look overly pleased about it. Do you think that's the reason?" Frus asked out of curiosity.

The demon that Ivy was fighting was soon destroyed. She hovered over to Frus and hugged him.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah...how'd you do that, anyway?"

"Do what?"

"Heal completely."

"I think it's rage that did it."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Great."

Another demon came over and Ivy attacked it too. Ygrene soon felt strong enough to fight and used a whole bunch of energy attacks to destroy some of the rest of the demons. The demons Maria was fighting were sent flying next to Frus and they disintigrated upon impact with the ground. She went around to others and was doing the same thing as before. Saga wasn't having that kind of luck, but he was managing. Vrust, when done with his group, went to see how Frus was doing. Just when all thought they'd won, a new group came along...ledby one of Ivy's ex-boyfriends. Ryan was the leader and he wanted revenge on one person and one person only...Ivy. However, looking around, he noticed Maria and thought that she was Ivy...

Beastfire: That's all I got for chapter 27. Hope you liked it! Please review, and Emec, update soon!


	28. The Return of the Jerk Extraordinaire

Chapter 28

With a grim smile, Ryan strode over to Maria and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Do you remember me?" he asked.

Maria calmly brushed his hand off and answered, "I don't believe that I've ever met you, boy."

Ryan's expression darkened, and his followers joined him standing in front of Maria. "You don't want to mess wit me, baby," said Ryan. "I can't TELL you how happy I am to see you _here_, and so soon I might add!"

Saga trudged over to Ryan. Lifting his axe, he said, "The evil banter is getting really old, really fast." He swung the weapon to chop off the man's head…and nothing happened.

"Unlike those demons, his soul isn't cursed. Normal attacks won't work," said Maria.

By now, Ivy had gotten a good look at the newcomer. "R-Ryan?" she said.

The man crouched down and looked at the meerkat. The voice was Ivy's and she recognized him, unlike the woman who looked so much like her. All thoughts of revenge were driven from his mind for a moment. "Ivy…what the…are you really a…" he trailed off. Upon his face was look of utter confusion.

"I'd say I was surprised to see you here, but I should have expected it. You're afraid to move on, aren't you? I can't see you as having someone to watch over," said Ivy.

Ryan's anger returned, and he stood up, sure that this was Ivy he was talking to. "Just because I didn't meet your "standards" doesn't mean that I don't have noble reasons for staying here. You see, I've been waiting for you, so that I could make you suffer as much as possible, as payback for you killing me. It seems that my task will be much more simple than I-" he cut off as a tin can passed through is head, and he looked over to see where it had come from. He saw Frus, who was giving him the finger.

Meanwhile, Saga was whispering to Maria, "This guy seems like he'll be talking for a while. We can pick off his minions while he does." Maria nodded and the two of them began stealthily removing demons from the back of the group.

Ryan went on, heedless of what was occurring. "Ivy, who's that guy? Did you drag your new boyfriend into whatever got you like that, or did you raid a pet shop once you changed?" He laughed as Ivy became angrier. She hurled a fireball at him which, surprisingly enough…hurt like heck.

Please review!


	29. Challenge

Beastfire: Here's chapter 29! HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

Ryan was now angry. He tried going after Ivy, but Frus got in the way. That was when Ryan noticed Frus' broken arm.

"Is that arm broken?" he asked. Frus tried to answer, but Ryan cut him off. "Let me check for myself." He picked up a rock and slammed it down on the broken limb. "Oh, I guess it is!"

Frus clawed at him with the right until Ryan grabbed that arm too. Ivy had had enough.

"THAT'S IT!" she shouted, temper having seemingly gone permanently off the deep end. "Don't you DARE touch him again!"

"Or what?"

The meerkat's eyes glowed blue as she telekinetically split the ground beneath Ryan's feet. He managed to jump out of the way in time, as Ivy was now kneeling by Frus' side, helping him sit up. She checked his arm, noticing that the bones were just two steps away from being completely shattered.

"How bad does it hurt?" she asked.

"Not that bad," replied Frus with a wince.

Ivy bandaged his arm and kissed him.

"As much as I hate to spoil this…" Ryan began.

"Dude…are you monologuing?" Frus asked, becoming slightly amused.

"No."

"Yeah, you are!"

"He's right," said Ivy. "You ARE monologuing!"

"AM NOT!" Ryan shouted.

Ivy mimicked him, causing Frus to laugh. Ryan glared at them both. He looked his ex dead in the eye, a look that sent chills down her spine. She had to make an effort not to shiver near him.

"Think back, Ivy. Back to that last night we had together…"

_At a military base, late at night, two figures stood outside. One was male with spiky black hair and hazel eyes with teal flecks in them. His muscles were rather large and his features just screamed sexy. His companion was shorter than he and skinnier. She had very slight curves, wavy waist length black and brown streaked hair with straight bangs over her left eye, and big blue eyes. _

"_Ryan?" the girl whispered to the guy. "Why are we here?" _

_He looked at her, putting his arms around her shoulders, smiling. _

"_There's just a favor I want you to do for me, baby," he told her. _

"_Like what?" _

"_There's this big metal thing I want you to get for me." _

_She looked in the window and saw the gleam of metal from a really big gun. She turned back and shoved Ryan playfully. _

"_Good one, Ryan!" she laughed. "For a second, there, it almost sounded like you wanted me to steal that weapon in there."_

"_I do want you to."_

_Her eyes flickered with anger, as she shoved him again. _

"_I ain't stealin' that for you! You must be outta your (bleep)in' mind!"_

_He looked at her. _

"_Use your powers, and nobody will know." _

"_NO!" _

_Ryan shoved her now. _

"_Yes, you will!" _

"_No way!" _

_They shoved each other back and forth until Ryan grabbed both of his girlfriend's arms and forced her into the building. She stepped on his foot and ran, hoping to find the nearest exit that Ryan wasn't blocking. She wound up in the same room as the weapon. Ryan soon burst in. He ran at his girlfriend, but she began to try fighting him. However, she was holding back, and he knew it. He kicked her straight into the weapon. She jumped behind it as he came back and learned how to control it. She figured it out just as he was walking in front of the gun. Her eyes began glowing blue as she powered it up, aiming directly at Ryan. He noticed and began to sweat, demeanor changing. _

"_Now, Ivy…you don't wanna do this. Um…er…I love you…" _

_She wasn't hearing it, though. _

"_Little late for that," she hissed angrily._

_The gun was fired and the ammo hit Ryan in the face, flying at such a velocity, his head was torn from his body and his skull cracked open, his brains spattering on the wall. Guiltlessly, Ivy turned on her heel and left._

"Well, you deserved it!" Ivy shouted defensively.

"Is that so?" growled Ryan.

"From what I've heard, you did," put in Maria.

"Who asked you?"

"Don't talk to her that way!" shouted Sprx, Saga, Vrust, and Ygrene.

Ryan just snorted at them and turned back to Ivy.

"Come with me," he ordered.

"NO! I'm still alive, anyway!" she yelled.

"How about we settle this, then? If you stay here, or leave. I challenge you to a cage match. Do you accept?"

"Bring. It. On."

Ryan snapped his fingers and he and Ivy were in a huge cage, others outside to watch.

Beastfire: Please review on the cliffie I left. Emec, update soon!


	30. Rage in the Cage

Chapter 30

Even as the cage was appearing, everyone was thinking the same thing. This was, of course, that Ryan was going to lose very, very badly. All of our heroes had seen Ivy's powers in action, and some had even been on the receiving end before. With no evidence that Ryan had special powers of his own or any immunity to Ivy's powers, it seemed as though he had no chance. Even the four or so minions he had left at this point were wondering why their boss didn't want their help. For them to have wanted to follow _that guy_ they must have been unbelievable stupid, which explains how they still didn't notice that they were being picked off one by one.

Ivy faced Ryan and the two stared each other down. Then, it began. Ivy started by using her telekinesis and throwing Ryan against the side of the cage over and over. Then, without stopping in between, she used her painkinesis to drain whatever strength he could have had left. He writhed in pain on the ground, crying out. Eventually Ivy stopped and looked down at the broken man on the floor. He looked up with a whimper to see Ivy creating a huge fireball. Suddenly, Ryan grinned and the fireball exploded, sending Ivy into the side of the cage. Outside, Frus rushed to the side of the cage, wishing he could help Ivy.

Ryan dashed over to Ivy and punched her in the stomach repeatedly. Then, he kicked her and she banged off the side of the cage again. She tried to use her hydrokinesis, but all that appeared was a light trickle. She looked up at her ex-boyfriend and weakly asked, "How are you doing this?"

Ryan sneered and answered in a whisper, "I'm cheating." Suddenly the sides of the cage had eyes and there was creepy high-pitched giggling.

Ryan began to attack again, and Ivy tried to think of a way out. Ryan had been able to inflict huge amounts of damage while her guard was down, not to mention whatever the creatures pretending to be metal were doing to her. Then, she remembered something. It was from her book, the one that had started this whole thing. It had stuck in her head because it was funny.

"Hullabaloo and howdy-do, musty prawns and Timbuktu, Elsie-bye and higgledy poo, kick 'em in the dish-pan hoo hoo hoo!" shouted Ivy. Ryan started acting as if he was having a seizure. At the same time, little fairy things started to float out of the cage. The cage vanished. However, Ryan recovered and tried running. He didn't get far, though. He was caught by Saga and Maria.

"M-my demons! Where are they?" stammered Ryan, wondering why he wasn't getting any help.

"Oh, see, even though you turned out to be a bigger threat than we thought, the type of demon you chose for minions was still about as smart as a shovel. We took them all out while no one was paying attention," explained Maria.

"Except that one," said Saga, pointing to a fat one who was picking his nose. "You notice that he still isn't helping you."

"Now, if you look behind you, you'll see my great-great-granddaughter is already recovering. She's going to beat you silly, then we're going to leave," said Maria.

The screams are best left to the imagination. Except for Ivy and Saga, everyone had a disturbed look as they headed back to Maria's territory, working together tomoveYgrene. Now, a new task law ahead of them: Finding a way home!

Please review!


	31. Burden

Beastfire: Here's chapter 31! ENJOY!

The group headed for Maria's territory. That fat demon was still digging for nostril gold and was walking next to Frus. He presented his nugget to the mongoose.

"Look, it's yello. Want some?" the demon offered.

Frus forced a polite grin, but utter disgust was in his eyes.

"Oh, uh...gee, thanks...Ivy? Little help?"

Ivy telekinetically blasted the demon to some unknown location and began walking next to Frus. He hugged her gratefully.

"Thank you."

Ivy just shrugged and returned the embrace. When she turned around, she was face to face withSprx.

"Whaddya want this time, Sparky?" she groaned.

The red monkey looked angry. "How do you expect to get us home?" he demanded. "YOU'RE the one who got us here in the first place!"

"Yeah," replied Ivy, "but who blew out Muerto's eardrums? Me! Who kicked the crap outta Ryan? Me!"

"But whose sorry butt are we usually stuck saving? Yours! Who's been holding us up this whole time because she can't go two seconds without getting hurt? You! In other words, we don't need you, BURDEN!"

His words hurt Ivy more than any demon, enemy, or Mafioso ever had. She would have cried, were it physically possible for her. She simply glared at him and got right in his face.

"FINE! I don't need to take this abuse! Especially not from a _deficiente _like you!"

The meerkat whipped around and stormed off. Sprx just snorted.

"She'll be back when she needs someone to save her again," he scoffed.

Frus shoved him to the ground with one paw. There was a look of pure death in his eyes.

"Look what you just did!" Frus shouted.

"What? Told your girlfriend the cold hard truth? Someone had to tell her!"

"You made it sound as though she's weak! I'll be the first to inform you that she's not! I'm gonna go find her..."

Frus left in search of Ivy. Speaking of Ivy, she'd wandered into a wooded-type area. She heard a twig snap behind her, assumed the worst, and ran for her life. She tripped over a rock and the amulet (which she'd given to Frus to hold onto before the fight but he gave it back after) went flying off of her and landed in a pile of dirt. She was just about to retrieve it when she felt herself being lifted by a big man. He looked a lot like Lorena, but a bit older. This was Lorena's father Butch. He too was a mutant hunter and had been closely monitoring his daughter's activities. He stuck a microchip in her flame, causing Ivy's powers to shut down.

"So, mutant, we finally meet..." he sneered, leaving with her.


	32. Hitchin' A Ride

Chapter 32

Butch carried Ivy to his territory. Ivy tried to fight, but without her powers it was impossible for her to escape the big man's grip. He brought her to a door, which had a strange, creepy mark on it, and opened it. A dim light came thought the doorway and Butch carried Ivy inside.

The first thing that Ivy noticed was all of the body parts strewn across the interior of Butch's lair. On the walls were heads of such creatures as a green cat, a three-eyed bear, and a lion with giant horns. On the floor there were rugs of more oddly colored animals and creatures with wings where there should have been none and tails that were too long or too short or had spikes and blades on them. Perhaps the most disturbing were the intact human corpses, which had similar mutations to the animals bodies, and some that looked normal but presumable had had some sort of powers when alive.

"Do you like my decorations? Most of them are simply imitations of the ones that I had when alive. It is difficult to gain such trophies in this world. Luckily for me, many of the those I killed were too afraid to move on, and I get to chase them around this world was often as I like," said Butch. Ivy would have answered, probably bringing up how sick in the head he was, but the look in Butch's eyes as he spoke was terrifying.

Butch continued speaking. "I am so glad to have found you, for three reasons. You are a mutant and alive at the same time, something that I can not allow, and there is a lot more that I can do with living flesh than with ghosts. Oh, and there are the things that happened to my daughter because of you. Well, shall we begin?"

Meanwhile, Frus was trying to catch up with Ivy. He was following her scent and hoping that she would slow down enough for him to catch up. He still wasn't in the best shape, so he wasn't able to go very fast. Suddenly, Ivy's scent stopped and was replaced by a sweaty stink and huge footprints. And the amulet was in in the dirt nearby. Fearing the worst, Frus picked it up and started to follow to footprints, now breathing through his mouth to escape the smell.

"You're not going to catch up like that," said a voice. Frus turned and saw his father.

"Where'd you come from?" asked Frus.

"That's not important. What is important is that we have a ride," replied Vrust, pointing to a familiar overweight demon. "Don't worry, I made him wash his hands." He pulled Frus onto the demon's back and told the demon to follow the footprints. Although it was fat, it was really fast, and it tore through the trees and out of the wooded area until it reached a marked door. Placing its hand on the knob, it received a shock.

Frus and Vrust heard a sinister voice from the other side of the door. It said, "Well, shall we begin?"


	33. Escape From Mr Psycho Mutant Hunter

Beastfire: Here's the new chapter! Enjoy!

Frus and Vrust knew now more than ever that they had to get Ivy out of there...and FAST! They both figured that the torture would be unimaginable. If they didn't find a way to save her soon, the sounds of her tortured screams would rip them to shreds emotionally.

Inside, Butch had strapped Ivy to a wall, and with her squirming to get away, it was no easy task.

"Squirm all you want," he hissed in her ear. "It'll make you all the more tempting of a target."

He left to get his "toys", leaving Ivy alone with the corpses. She looked around and saw a horned mutant head above her, looking a bit loose. She slammed herself against the wall to the best of her ability and the head fell, cutting through the straps (and cutting Ivy a little, but that's just a small price to pay). She dropped to the floor, bleeding a bit, and landed on a human corpse. She decided to arm herself...with a leg. She ripped a leg from the body and Butch came back.

"How did you get free?" he demanded when he saw his would-be victim holding the leg.

"I'm smarter than you," she gloated before nailing him below the belt with the leg. Butch fell to the floor and Ivy proceeded to beat him with the leg. When he was down, she used a large amount of her energy to drag him to another set of straps and restrained him with them. She ran to the door, tripping over a headless body along the way. She heard a loud CRACK and thought, 'Oh, that had better be the dead guy...' It wasn't. Her ankle had cracked, but she really couldn't care less. She slammed the leg from before into the door until it cracked open and she was able to get out. She came face to face with Vrust, who was using his Phoenix Talons to get through. He'd stopped when he heard the pounding.

"Ivy?" Frus asked. "Is that you?"

"No," Ivy said sarcastically, "it's the leprechaun that lives in Shorty's stomach."

Frus laughed, as did Ivy. She limped over to him and sat down, wound still bleeding a little. He sat by her, putting his arm around her shoulders. He noticed the blood.

"Ivy, what happened? You're bleeding," he said with concern.

"Just a couple accidents...one involving a mutant head with horns and the other with a headless body. I'll be fine," she reassured him, giving him a hug.

Neither one really cared that she was bleeding on him too. When they let go, Frus got up and supported Ivy's weight.

"We should probably get going," Frus suggested.

Ivy and Vrust both agreed and looked around. The demon had left and Ivy was trying to get to the microchip in her flame, but couldn't reach it. She knew that she'd be able to use her healing power if it were pulled out...

Beastfire: That's all I got. Please review, and Emec, update soon!


	34. Woah

Chapter 34

Ivy, Frus, and Vrust started to go back towards the rest of their friends. They would try and clear things up, then work on finding a way home. Ivy's anger at Sprx and overall sadness had been diminished by the near_er_ death experience, and Frus planned to beat the crap out of the red monkey if need be. However, it soon became obvious that they wee lost…again. Frus and Vrust tried to see if they could follow their own scent from the trip to find Ivy, but apparently fat demons had no distinct odor when in the realm of the dead. So the three of them were reduced to wandering.

"Déjà vu," muttered both Frus and Ivy. "Maybe we can find a door that looks familiar, or something," added Frus. They began to look around, and eventually that saw something shiny in the distance and decided to investigate. They carefully made their way over to the whatever it was, hoping to avoid anything dangerous.

When they got close enough, they saw that the shiny thing was a big, silver, high-tech-looking door. It was in three segments and had big orb things in it.

"That's…different," said Ivy. When she received no response, she looked away from the odd door and at Frus and Vrust. The two of them seemed mesmerized; they were staring at the shiny metal with blank expressions. Ivy waved her hand in front of Frus' face and snapped her fingers. When that didn't work, she tried kissing Frus, and he came to almost immediately. Frus turned his father away from the door and yelled his name, awakening him as well.

"Father, do you have any idea what that door leads to?" asked Frus.

"This reminds me of something, but I don't really know what. I think that there is something of use behind that door," answered Vrust.

"We're about to find out," said Ivy. She had gone over to see about the door, and it was slowly opening. The segments were sliding together, revealing a doorway.

Making sure not to look at what was still visible of the door, Frus and Vrust followed Ivy inside. Vrust put a slab of metal in the doorway, just in case the door began to close. Inside it was dark. Ivy considered the door and decided to check for a light switch. Finding one, she flipped it and some bright lights came on. Suddenly, a big robot arm with a very intricately made hand on it came down and grabbed onto Ivy. Before Frus or Vrust could try to get her away from it, it pulled the microchip out of her and put bandages on her, then set her back down. As it patted her on the head, Ivy shook her head to relieve the dizziness from the speed of the treatment.

The hand retreated back to wherever it had come from and Ivy, Frus, and Vrust looked around at the rest of the place. There were several hundred machines, all of them sleek and well designed, although a few of them were unfinished. However, the thing that caught the attention of the three of them was a platform with a control pad and a circular doorway on it. They took a few steps toward it, and a voice came from behind them.

"I thought I heard someone out here."

Please review!


	35. Mistake

Beastfire: Here's chapter 35! ENJOY!

Ivy, Frus, and Vrust turned around at the sound of the voice. It came from someone in a camoflauge uniform. The man looked at Ivy and recognized her.

"I remember you!" he said fondly, gently picking her up.

Frus and Vrust could tell that he meant her no harm, so they just watched as he began petting her.

"Weird," said Ivy suspiciously, "I don't seem to remember you..."

"I'm from the Mutant Protection Agency. The same one that arrested Lorena?"

"Oh, NOW I remember! How'dja die, man?"

"Freak accident...and I can tell you're still alive. You were also attacked by Butch Spellieran."

"How do you know that?" asked Frus, amazed.

The man pulled out a remote, pushed a button, and the robotic arm returned. He patted the arm.

"This," he beamed, "can sense vital signs and has a DNA analyzer."

"Oh. Thank you, that's all I needed to know."

Ivy looked at the platform, control panel, and doorway combo, then at the guy.

"Dude, what is that?" she asked, pointing to it.

"It's a transportation device,"he told her, setting her back down.

Before he could finish, the trio ran over to it. Frus got on first. Vrust and Ivy were pushing buttons, trying to get the right combination. They'd get it started, then jump on. Just then, a beam shot toward Frus and they jumped after him. The beam hit him in the head and the other two made it on. The device whirred and they disappeared from there and reappeared elsewhere. Vrust landed on Ygrene's back, Ivy landed on Saga's head, and Frus was nowhere to be found. Maria noticed and rushed over. She picked Ivy up and hugged her.

"Where have you been? We've been so worried!" Maria told her, then set her down, ran over to Sprx, and twisted his arm behind his back. "Now apologize to my great great granddaughter!"

"For what?" Sprx squeaked.

"You're the reason she ran away in the first place!"

"Okay...I-I'm sorry, Ivy...you're not a weakling..."

Maria let go as Ivy and Vrust were looking around for Frus. They suddenly heard a cry, like that of a small child. Ivy ran over, followed by Vrust. There, on the ground, was a fluffy baby mongoose, with silver fur and big innocent deep red eyes. Ivy blinked.

"FRUS?" she called. "HEY, FRUS, WHERE ARE YA?"

"I-vy?" came the small voice.

Ivy looked down at the child, eyes widening.

"Frus? That you?"

The baby giggled and reached toward her. She picked the baby up and heard a loud THUD. Vrust had fainted.

Beastfire: (giggling) That's chapter 35! Aaaaaawwww...Frus is such a cute baby! What will he eat, since Ivy can't cook...without the usage of a spell or an appliance and she hasn't quite mastered witchcraft? How will Frus be turned back? I don't know...well, please review! Emec, update soon!


	36. Such a Cute Baby!

Chapter 36

Ivy held the now infant Frus with a very confused expression. Looking at everyone around her, she didn't receive much reassurance. Everyone conscious gave her looks similar to the one she gave them.

'Okay, Ygrene and Vrust knew Frus as a little kid, right? Maybe they can help,' thought Ivy. Meanwhile, Frus was messing with her hair. He wasn't pulling it or anything, he was running his fingers through it. Anyway, Ivy tried a few different things and eventually awoke the Ygrene and Vrust. Vrust was still a little out of it, but Ygrene looked at Frus and remembered when they had first met and all of the stories he had told the little guy.

After a minute or two, Vrust was back to normal, too. Well, okay, in truth he was muttering incoherently, but he was doing well in the situation. Luckily, Ygrene was done daydreaming and ready to help out Ivy. But first…

"Ivy, uh, what happened?" he asked.

"I have no idea," she answered. "I was hoping that you could give me some pointers or something."

Ygrene started to say something, when a small hand flew out of the ground. Gripped in that hand was a map. Ivy took the map and looked at it, and it showed a way to some sort of restorative thingy and various desserts. Ivy shook the hand and it vanished back to wherever it had come from.

And so, our party was on another mission that had nothing to do with getting home.

I can't think of anything else, and it has already taken me too long to write this.


	37. Full Circle

Beastfire: Here's chapter 37! Sorry it took so long, but I've been busy...(cut to shot of Beastfire watching both Ring movies) Uh...we can edit that, right? Oh, well...ENJOY!

Ivy was carrying Frus, who was now asleep and curled up into her fur. She smiled to herself and brushed a little dirt from the fur on his face. He sighed happily in his sleep, using a little bit of Ivy's hair for a blanket. She allowed it and kept walking. Maria was reading the map...or at least trying to. Her map reading skills left much to be desired.

"Why don't I read the map?" offered Saga.

Maria handed the map to him and soon, they reached their destination. They looked for the restorative, and didn't find much of anything. That was when Ivy caught a glimpse of a VERY familiar book. There, staring her in the face, was the book that had started this whole thing. She screamed in frustration, and Frus woke up crying.

"NICE GOIN'!" shouted Sprx, covering his ears.

Ivy was attempting to calm the baby down, and actually succeeded after a while.

"THIS is the restorative?" Maria asked, rather surprised.

Ivy just shrugged next, picked it up, and found what she'd assumed to be the right spell.

"ERESSE AL OMOU!" she yelled.

She was sent flying backwards, as an invisible force ripped Frus from her arms. He was sent flying behind a shrub, where a bright light shot out in all directions.

"YES! I'm me again!" announced Frus. "Wait...why do I feel taller? And really cold?"

When the light died down, behind the shrub stood a really muscular man with dark skin, long thick silver hair, the ears of an elf, and reddish-brown eyes...in the buff. More confusion ensued. Maria left and came back with some clothes, handing them to the now-human Frus. It took a while, but he managed to get them on correctly.

Suddenly, a small figure ran over to Ivy, book still in her hands. It was strong, had black and blood red fur, and harsh green eyes. This was yet another mongoose, and he had his eyes on a certain meerkat. Without hesitation, he wrapped one arm around her waist and took the book with the other. He too, was alive, and lived just outside of Shuggazoom.

"Hello, beautiful," he purred into Ivy's ear.

"Who do you think you are?" she demanded.

"I'm Trevrep."

"Well, lemmie go!"

"No."

Ivy managed to twist out of his grasp as he was reading a spell to return home. She skidded on the ground and Trevrep was gone with the book. Sprx stood over her.

"This is all your fault, you little moron!" the red monkey yelled.

He was soon backhanded, and Ivy was lifted from the ground. Sprx glared up at Frus, who was setting Ivy upon his shoulder.

"Leave her alone, Sprx," he told the primate, "and let's just look for a way home. We can worry about getting me back to normal later."

So they, they sat there thinking, Frus absentmindedly petting Ivy, not that she was complaining.

Beastfire: And that's the new chapter! Please review! Emec, I hope you update soon!


	38. Another Fight Approaches

Chapter 38

The group was still thinking, when in a puff of smoke, a little man with really long ears, blue eyes, and long silver hair appeared before them.

"Greetings, all, I am Puck!" he proclaimed. He jumped into the air and started to do a flip. In the middle of it, he caught sight of Frus and he began to float over to him, still upside-down. "Are we related or something?" inquired Puck.

"No, see, I'm not always like this, I-" Frus was cut off by the strange little man's shrieking laughter.

"You-you actually thought I was serious! Aw, no…well, so what happened to you guys?" asked Puck.

"Well, we-" began Maria, who was also cut off.

"No, no, I don't really care. Mostly because…I already know, lady!" yelled Puck.

"You're starting to get annoying," said Ygrene.

"Huzzah!" cheered Puck, and he began to laugh again. The group started to move towards the odd man. "Calm down, peoples, I'm going to help you, or so you think."

"You're really going to help us?" asked Otto.

"Or so you think," said Puck. He then waved his hand, to make everyone forget that last part, then laughed because he had had to repeat it.

"So, Puck, what are you going to do?" asked Ivy.

"Ah, little, little, little lady, you see, I not only know about your problems, I can fix them! That is, of course, if you win a little game!" said Puck.

"Let me guess. If we lose, we die horribly, right?" asked Saga.

"No, no, but I don't help you, and I continue to laugh at you," said Puck.

"So, how do we play this game?" asked Ivy.

"You're already playing!" shouted Puck.

The group looked around. They were in a very…warped version of Shuggazoom. Saga was standing on top of a street light, which instead of a bulb had a glowing eye. The streets were dark, even though the sun was out, and the people seemed mindless. The doors to almost all of the buildings seemed painted on, and the only ones that could possibly work were on new buildings. One said "Weapons & Armor" and the other said "Items." Finally, most noticeably of all, was that everyone was human, not to mention wearing fantasy gear. Most of it looked like it had been drawn over them, and badly, but Ivy and Frus had on well-made, if odd, costumes. Frus had pants that had apparently been a recycles potato sack, but wore a glimmering chest plate and held a claymore. Ivy had a "full" suit of armor, but almost anything probably have been more effective.

"Why am I dressed like this?" asked Ivy.

"I thought it would be funny!" said Puck.

Ivy sighed. "So what's the point of this?" she asked.

"As you can tell, this isn't the real Shuggazoom. This is like a bad RPG world based on it. However, I brought that guy Trev…Pervis…whatever here and turned him human, too, and you have to get to him and beat him to win! He has final boss stats, of course," replied Puck.

"Of course," groaned Ivy.

"Now, get going!" commanded Puck. He then floated up above them and held out his hand. Popcorn appeared and he got settled to watch.

Everyone in the group shrugged at the same time, then started on their quest. After about ten or fifteen steps, the world warped, and suddenly Frus, Ivy, Sprx, and Otto were facing down…two pink puffball creatures. The others were nowhere in sight. If their enemy was a final boss…this was going to take a while.

Frus slashed one of the puffballs in half with his big sword, and then it was Ivy's turn. She suddenly had a staff, which she used to whack the other puffball…several times. It ran out of HP and blew up. Frus, Ivy, Otto, and Sprx each received 10 exp, and Ivy got an herb. Then, the world warped again.

During the fight, it had started to rain, and as the group returned to the over world map, they were exposed to it. But this was no ordinary rain. It was raining a ham sandwich. Not ham sandwiches plural; the same ham sandwich over and over. After a collective sigh, our heroes started walking again, hoping to get just a little further this time before another random-battle.

Note to readers: Please don't get mad at me about the apparel. When I got to that part, I remembered how, so often when you find a legitimate list of characters that happen to wear armor, someone just had to put in a girl with armor that makes you wonder how it could ever be effective. I thought that when they finally reach the end their enemy's reaction would be priceless (it would also allow them to skip some leveling-up if he's distracted during the final fight).


	39. Cold

Beastfire: Hey, here's chapter 39! Sorry it took so long, but it was fun to write...ENJOY!

As the ham sandwich rained down upon the group of Sprx, Otto, Ivy, and Frus, the green monkey...I mean green-haired human plucked it out of the air and ate it. Puck suddenly appeared, laughing.

"You shouldn't have eaten that sandwich!" he smiled.

"Why not?" Otto asked stupidly.

"It's a diarrhertic."

"CRAP!"

"Exactly!"

Otto felt a disturbance in his bowels and ran off.

"Heehee...it's activated by the word 'crap'!" cheered Puck.

"Really...?" Ivy asked, interested.

"Hey, little lady...lookin' good!" he teased, as she turned redder than Sprx and tried to cover herself up.

He laughed and disappeared. Frus got a good look at Ivy's armor.

"Okay, I don't get it. Is that supposed to provide any protection whatsoever?" he asked.

"Doesn't feel like it..." she sighed in slight annoyance.

She felt someone grab her butt and she turned to see Sprx, a rather lecherous grin on his face. Casually, Ivy smashed him over the head with her staff. It was her turn to grin.

"This thing's kinda fun...I like to hit things..."

Otto soon caught up to them, and they continued on. They soon found themselves in a taiga-like area. Needless to say, Ivy was shivering immensely. Frus wished he could help, but knew he couldn't do much. The mutant suddenly tripped over her own feet and fell in the snow. Frus found, hanging from a tree, an oversized coat. He reached up, pulled it down, helped Ivy up, and draped it around her shoulders.

Just then, Sprx fell over, having tripped over...a lizard? It wasn't any ordinary lizard, for it was a killer snow lizard. It soon became several of them. Otto suddenly had an axe and Sprx had a bow and several arrows. Otto, Sprx, and Frus began fighting these lizards, as a humanoid one stepped toward Ivy. She cast off the coat and stood ready to fight, brandishing her staff menacingly.

"Tell me," she threatened, "do you value your kneecaps?"

He laughed, expecting nothing. Ivy smashed the guy in the kneecaps, over and over. He fell over in pain and called his minions over. The other lizards left their fights and swarmed in on Ivy. She was suddenly hit by an idea. She plunged the staff into the ground, creating an energy shield around herself.

Frus, Sprx, and Otto rushed over and began fighting them. Frus and Otto hacked away at the lizards while Sprx was shooting arrows. Ivy was using her staff to fight the leader. Finally, the lizards' HP ran out, and the group got 20 exp this time. Now, a figure appeared. It was tall, shadowy, and had a mythical quality.

"You get to make a wish," it told them.

"I'd like to win this," said Frus.

"I wanna go home," said Otto.

"I miss Nova," said Sprx.

"I want some clothes!" Ivy exclaimed.

"Well...GOOD LUCK!" Puck's voice shrieked in their ears.

The figure turned into Puck and he was laughing. They'd all had just about enough of him, but Ivy was past her breaking point. She tried to attack him, but was restrained by Frus.

"Lemmie go!" she yelled, squirming to no avail.

"Sorry, Ivy, but if you kill him, he won't help us," he explained.

She stopped and sulked in disappointment. A flask suddenly came flying at her head, but Frus caught it before it could hurt her. They were soon on their way again.

Meanwhile, Ygrene, Maria, Vrust, and Saga were in the same place that the others were previously in. Before this they were...nowhere, really. No, really! They were in a void. Ygrene and Vrust were trying to get used to being human. Vrust, even as a human, looked very much like Frus, but even stronger. Ygrene was still the biggest, muscles bulging against the armor. His hair was blue and his eyes teal. His skin was more of a tannish color. The puffballs came out again, and they were all armed with various weapons.

Beastfire: And that's chapter 39. Hope you enjoyed and that you review! Emec, update soon!


	40. More!

Chapter 40 

The puffballs were just about to begin their attack when, elsewhere, Frus discovered the menu screen. Suddenly, Sprx vanished from the further along group and was replaced by Saga, and Sprx appeared where Saga had been. The puffballs stopped. 

"Wait…you're with those guys?" asked a puffball. 

"Why aren't you still in the void zone? We can't attack anyone other than the main party," said another. 

"Hey, boss, spread the word, both of these parties are actually one. No, no events. Yeah, you need to tell everybody. Thanks," the first puffball was talking on a cell phone. 

"Hey, either catch up with the rest of your party, or go back to nowhere!" said the other puffball. 

Frus had been switching the group around throughout the entire conversation, hoping that the group could earn some gold and find an inn before someone ran out of HP. So now, Frus, Vrust, Saga, and Ygrene were running as fast as they could to catch up with the others. Frus had chosen them because they were most likely the fastest. 

Meanwhile, Ivy was in charge of the group, apparently, and everyone was going to sit and wait for the others. Even though only four could enter a battle, it would be nice the have everyone together. Otto went over to a rock to sit on it…and suddenly they were sucked into a random battle. 

Ivy, Maria, Otto, and Sprx were suddenly facing six blue goblins. Ivy, who had first attack, was about to go attack them with her staff, looked at her spells list. Finding a fire spell, she smiled evilly at the goblins and paid some mana, then melted four in one attack. Maria, who suddenly had knives, attacked one, but it didn't die. Otto attacked it with his axe, and it fell. Then, Sprx used an arrow on the last one, not doing much damage. Then, it was the goblin's turn. It used a spear one Ivy, doing more damage than one would expect. On Ivy's turn, she nearly broke her staff over the things head. The group received 50 exp two potions and some gold. 

As the four of them faded back to the over world map, Frus and the others felt themselves level up. Then, they could see their friends just a little bit ahead of them. As the only one to have been attacked, Ivy was drinking a potion. 

Frus switched around the order again, and they started their journey again. After a long and surprisingly boring walk, they saw a town, and began to run towards it. Then, they were called into another random battle. This time, it was the group that had been catching up. They were attacked by a golem a four little mud creatures. 

Frus took out one of the mud creatures with a swing of his sword, and his father did the same. Saga dashed over to a third mud beast and used some sort of hook to take it out, and Ygrene, instead of attacking a mud beast, jumped forward and punched the golem with gauntlets that he was suddenly wearing. 

The mud creature attacked Saga, doing little damage. The golem, however, attacked Ygrene and put him at less than half health. Frus took out the last mud creature and the other three worked together and defeated the golem. As the battle ended, everyone leveled up again, and the party got some gold. 

Soon after that the party reached he town. Although they hoped to finish the little game as quickly as possible, they had two destinations: the item shop and the inn. 

At the item shop, the group spent their gold on healing potions and better weapons. They couldn't afford armor. With just a little gold left, they went towards the inn. It was a small building and only a few steps away. 

To call it an inn was almost criminal. There was one bed in a small room. Unfortunately, going in there was a cutscene, and the party wasn't allowed to leave until morning unless there was some sort of special event. It was the best way to fully heal everyone and replenish energy, anyway. So everyone just sort of sat down wherever they found themselves once they were inside. 

In the morning, Saga woke up first. He began to wonder why he had even fallen asleep, when he had meant to keep watch the entire night, and he had never simply succumbed to exhaustion before. 

"Because, you're no you right now," said a voice. Saga looked up to see Puck, floating above him. 

"That explains why I didn't sense you," said Saga. 

"Exactly. You're not Saga the I don't know what, you're Saga, the thief character in my RPG story," replied Puck. 

"So…what are you doing here?" asked Saga. 

"Well, watching you sleep all night, which is normal length here, and I don't know why, was really boring. So I'm going to skip a bit of this game. There's no question as to whether you would have beaten that much, anyway," explained Puck. He then slapped Saga with a small shark. With a yell of "Game on!" he vanished. 

Sage wiped the slime off his face and looked around. The room was different, and there were odd sounds coming from outside. Saga looked out the window, which was new, and he saw that it was a different town altogether. 

Saga felt stronger, and had a well-made blue cloak on now instead of the ugly, near-useless stuff he had had on before. In fact, everyone who had had badly-made armor was wearing something more fitting. However, only Frus and Ivy could check the menu screen, so Saga woke up Frus, who was now had decent pants to go with the rest of his armor. 

"Wha-what is it?" asked Frus. 

"Check our status and inventory," said Saga. Frus did so, and saw that everyone was now about level 40 and they had an extensive inventory, with mystical weapons, colored orbs, phoenix downs (but spelled with an F instead) and more. "We're further along in the game. I'm going to go collect information. Assuming the others wake up, keep them here until I get back," said Saga. He then opened the window and jumped gracefully to the ground. 

Saga began to walk around. It turned out not to be a town, but a city, a beautiful one at that. There was shiny tile and marble statues everywhere, along with fountains and small streams throughout the city, more so than there were streets, in fact. There were barges hauling cargo and children staring at the fish. They were odd colors and were sparkling in the early morning light. Saga took all this in as he wandered the streets, and eventually he stopped at a tavern. 

Please review! 


	41. Return of the Perv

Beastfire: Here's the new chappie. Happy Thanksgiving!

As Saga approached the tavern, he heard a scream. Turning, he saw a man running with a very angry mutant behind him.

"NEVER STARE AT MY (bleep)IN' CHEST AGAIN!" Ivy screamed after the guy, holding her staff, ready to attack.

As they passed Saga, he put his foot out, making Ivy trip. Before she could get up to continue the chase, Saga picked her up, slung her over his shoulder (despite her protesting), and took her back to where he'd just left.

Frus had just gone back to sleep, and Saga dropped Ivy off next to him, then left again. She tried to get up to leave, but Saga had tied her wrist to Frus' and told her that it would help keep her out of trouble. She'd have yelled at him, but she didn't want to wake Frus. After a few moments, he rolled over...on her. Next his father was looking for his pillow and found it on Frus' stomach. Ygrene had let his feet rest on Frus' chest, thinking it was a foot rest. Ivy couldn't take it anymore. She began kicking Frus in the kidneys, screaming at him to get off. He realized he was under her, though her screams were a bit muffled, and quickly got up, in turn awakening Vrust and Ygrene. He felt a 120 pound weight bound to his wrist and saw Ivy there.

"Good morning, Ivy," he greeted as though there were nothing wrong.

He noticed that she had something on her back. It was a double sheath with two swords in it. She'd bought them a few levels back.

"What are you doing here?" asked Vrust curiously. "I thought you were with the others."

She and Frus managed to get themselves untied, then Ivy explained.

"Well, I was just walkin' around, mindin' my own business, when I saw some _deficiente _starin' at my chest! I politely hit 'im over the head and told 'im to stop, but he wouldn't. So, I began chasin' the dude 'till Saga tripped me and brought me here."

Frus growled a growl that just screamed "Nobody stares at MY girl's body in skimpy armor and gets away with it!". By now, he'd forgotten what Saga had told him and instead went searching for the pervert. The others followed. Sprx, Maria, and Otto had found Saga, so they were with him. He'd told them where Ivy was so they wouldn't worry.

Frus, Ivy, Vrust, and Ygrene walked around the city, pervert hunting. They'd found a dark area and Ivy felt a pair of cold hands roaming her body, one near the chest, the other around the thighs.

"So, beautiful, we meet again," purred the voice of none other than Trevrep.

Ivy let off a scream and Vrust used a light spell to see the problem. There, holding Ivy, was a tall, strong guy with black hair, green eyes, and blood red markings tattooed all over his body. The others suddenly appeared, as did Ivy's staff.

Beastfire: And that's the newest chapter. Hope you enjoyed it and that you review. Hey, Emec, you're up!


	42. That bleep Is Goin Down

Chapter 42 

As the four who had been there all along vanished to the battle screen area whatever thingy place, Saga snorted. 

'I understand that this is a special event, with the battle occuring in a city, but I was in the middle of something. Why was I transported here?' thought Saga. 

Ivy, Frus, Vrust, and Ygrene were facing Trevrep on the battle screen. Ivy got the first attack and used ALL of her mana for one big fireball, which did 800 damage. Frus was next, and his attack allowed him to use his mana in a normal attack, and adding his anger resulted in a super-critical, which did 750 damage. Vrust attacked for 600 and Ygrene attacked for 500 damage. 

Trevrep was more than ready to retaliate. Although Ivy had proved herself to be the most dangerous, he didn't want to do any more damage to her than he needed to. He started by going after Frus. He waved his hand and used a spell than stole some of Frus' health. However, he didn't stop there. For some reason, he was allowed a second attack, which he used to slash Frus with a burning, yes burning, sword. 

Then, It was Ivy's turn again. She used her staff to attack Trevrep. But suddenly, it was Trevrep's turn again. He struck twice with his sword, again on Frus. Frus fell, but then got back up. It was his turn, but he couldn't attack. He used a potion to heal himself. Then it was Trevrep's turn again, and he attacked Frus twice more. Vrust attacked again, and then Trevrep healed himself. Ygrene attacked once again; for the record, he wasn't using mana for his attacks - they were status-inducing only. 

Trevrep attacked Frus again; this time, Frus fell to the ground. Needless to say, Ivy was angry enough to cause a critical hit. Trevrep shrugged it off, however, and prepared to begin fighting Vrust. Before he could, however, Saga appeared in the battle screen area. He put his hands together and began to chant. A shark, similar to the one he had been hit with, appeared in his hands, and Saga hit Trevrep. 

Suddenly, the battle screen warped and seemed to connect back to the main world screen, and a long, high whistle reached everyone's ears. They looked up as one and saw red lights in the sky. Fireballs flew from the four corners of the city and crashed into Trevrep. The number 99999 appeared in red above his head in and he collapsed. 

"Cheat codes," said Saga, suddenly right behind Ivy as all but Frus appeared back in the normal world. He was carrying Sprx, Otto, and Maria, who were too drunk to walk. "I was able to get some information at that tavern, but I had to use up most of our gold, both in buying everyone drinks and in getting that game shark. Not to mention, no one would trust us if we didn't drink as well." 

As Saga finished, Frus appeared. He was floating and had his eyes closed. Ivy used a Phoenix, excuse me, Feenix Down (Puck's choice of spelling) to revive him, then gave him some healing potions. As Frus returned to normal, Ivy looked up - just in time to see Trevrep riding a wyvern over the city wall. 

"There is a castle on a hill, not far from here. Meet me there, and we'll finish this!" called Trevrep. 

"That's just insulting!" yelled Ygrene. He was about to continue when odd music played, the words Event Cleared ran across the screen, and everyone was returned to full health and mana. 

"There's nothing stopping us, now. It's time to end this," said Frus. The group began to head towards the city exit. Or rather, four members did. Otto, Sprx, and Maria were in a heap on the ground, and Saga was nowhere to be found. 

As the others wondered what had happened to him, Saga was looking for something special. Something every game needed. He was looking for a place to save. 

Please review! 


	43. A Plan

Beastfire: Here's the new chapter. Enjoy!

Both Ivy and Frus wanted to make Trevrep pay, Frus for him wanting Ivy and Ivy for him hurting/almost killing Frus. Vrust and Ygrene weren't planning to stop them, either. Otto, Sprx, and Maria were still drunk as skunks. With those three, Otto had fallen asleep, Sprx was throwing up, and Maria washallucinating. She was imagining all sorts of things, from purple rhinos to talking pants. Yes, her hallucinations were rather odd.

"I'm gonna kill that (bleep)," vowed Ivy. "I'm gonna kill him, then burn his remains, then sprinkle the ashes on Skeleton King's breakfast..."

Frus, Vrust, and Ygrene stared at her, a tad disturbed.

"I think I have an idea," said Vrust.

The other three looked over, interested.

"He wants Ivy, right?"

Frus gripped Ivy protectively.

"Father!" he said, repremandingly. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST WANT TO HAND HER OVER LIKE THAT!"

"Calm down, son. I don't mean that at all. What I DO mean is that she can distract him."

"How'm I supposed to do that?" Ivy asked.

"Well, I have a plan for that, too, but I'll have to ask my son to hold his temper for it," said Vrust.

"What is it...?" Frus and Ivy asked hesitantly.

Vrust's idea was one that he didn't believe neither his son nor his son's girlfriend would be very gung-ho for.

"Ivy, to distract Trevrep, you'll need to seduce him."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me."

Ivy was livid, to say the least. No, that's not it...insanely infuriated with her boyfriend's father. Ygrene could sense this and grabbed onto Ivy, keeping her from causing immense harm to Vrust.

"Father, I thought you were on our side," Frus basically squeaked.

"I am, but this will help us along."

Ivy would have said that she was extremely bad at acting, but she could already tell that he'd egg her on. She decided to test her seductive skills out, instead. She looked up at Ygrene, a really seductive look in her eyes. She reached a hand up, stroking his face.

"So," she purred, "are you man enough to take me on?"

Ygrene felt several thousand beads of sweat gather all over his body. Ivy just continued, until she heard Vrust saying that she could stop and that that's good enough. More than good enough, in fact. They finished getting to where the battle was to be held. Saga, meanwhile, had found a place to save the game, grabbed Otto, Maria, and Sprx, and got them all to the others. Trevrep met them all there. It was just a matter of time, now, and Ivy had a mission, not that she'd enjoy it...

Beastfire: And that's the new chapter. Please review, and Emec, update soon!


	44. Fight Once More

Chapter 44 

The party met Trevrep in a huge room in the castle. The path had been clearly marked, and there had been no monster attacks on the way. However, as soon as the team entered, the exits were blocked, and what was apparently the final battle began. 

Frus' turn was first, and he struck with his sword…and met defenses. The same happened when Vrust attacked with his sword. Then, it was Ivy's turn. She went over to Trevrep and placed a hand on the side of his face. She claimed that she wanted to join the winning team, then whispered something that the others couldn't hear, and a grin that said slime ball spread across Trevrep's face. Ivy knew that she needed to smile, too, to make it convincing, but she had to think about other things to pull that off. Just standing too close left a bad taste in her mouth, and what she'd just said made her want to vomit. 

Ygrene attacked as hard as he could, and his attack did full damage, and was a critical hit as well. However, with Trevrep thinking that he had already won, he didn't even react. He even skipped his turn! Frus acted on this stupidity, mana-charging his sword and striking, landing a critical hit like Ygrene. Vrust did the same, and Trevrep was finally knocked out of his stupor. It was too late to put up his defenses, however, and since Ivy could tell that he was alert, she attacked him as hard as she could. Ygrene, seeing that the team would need a new edge, now, used a status-inducing spell, and a green haze appeared around Trevrep's head. 

On Trevrep's turn, he renewed his defenses and attacked Frus with a giant sword that had one blade of ice and one of fire with some chaos magic sprinkled over the whole thing. He attacked Frus and did a huge amount of damage. Oh Frus' next turn, he fully healed himself with some really good item. Trevrep took another turn, and he attacked Vrust this time. Vrust used his turn to attack Trevrep, but with the defenses up it did little damage. Trevrep took the rest of his health on his next turn. Ivy attacked him with lighting magic on her next turn, but Trevrep's defenses were superb. He attacked Frus again, and then it was Ygrene's turn. Ygrene attacked Trevrep again. Then trevrep tried to attack Frus and take him out of the fight…but he missed. 

On Frus' next turn, he used the rest of his mana in an attack on Trevrep, who tried attacking Ygrene instead. Then, Ivy attacked Trevrep, and once again Trevrep attacked Ygrene. Ygrene fell, and it was down to Frus and Ivy. 

Frus attacked, and Trevrep attacked him right back, but he missed again. After Ivy's attack, Trevrep looked at her and sighed. "Sorry, babe," he said, "but I plan on winning this. I'll revive you soon enough after the fight." With that, he attacked Ivy with his sword. The battle continued on, and after two more attacks Ivy was down as well, and at the same time the haze around Trevrep faded. He knew that the battle was about to end. Just to be sure, he used a spell that would freeze Frus for two turns. Trevrep was about to attack, when suddenly the game said that it wasn't his turn. He looked up, and saw Ygrene vanish and Saga appear in his place. Saga, who was fresh and ready to fight, where as Trevrep had used a desperation spell in case his next attack on Frus didn't end it. And of course, there was the fact that he'd forgotten to renew his defenses since Frus was frozen anyway. However Saga had joined the battle, Trevrep was in trouble. 

Or, at least that's what he thought. Almost immediately, Saga began to vanish, and he couldn't attack. As Trevrep was about to let out a shout of triumph, Saga held up a big red feather, and dropped it onto Ivy. Apparently some sort of Deluxe Feenix Down (darn you, Puck!), it fully healed Ivy, and restored all of her mana. Saga was grinning evilly when he disappeared back to the waiting place outside the battle. 


	45. Short and with ANOTHER Character too!

Beastfire: Here's chapter 45! Enjoy! OH, and Annie is Lmann's OC.

Ivy stood back up, vengence flashing in her eyes. If Trevrep knew her better, he'd run. However, he saw her as just flesh...HIS flesh...to consume. She would make him pay, she vowed silently to herself. Her blood was pretty much boiling in her veins. Her eyes were an unnaturally steely blue. She looked at her list of spells and found one that appealed to her. An evil grin spread across her face as she cast it.

A bright glow was seen in the middle of the room and when it dissipated, there was a girl standing there with brownish-blonde, shoulder-length hair, grey eyes, a red shirt, black skirt, and a long black coat. She looked around in confusion.

"Where am I?" she asked.

Ivy was too busy cursing to answer. In her anger, she read the wrong spell, bringing Annie there. Frus quickly explained.Trevrep soon got back to fighting him, though. The mutant noticed, growled, and attacked the perv.

Meanwhile, Sprx and Otto had wandered off, making their way toward the castle. Both were immensely hung over now. They were looking for a stomach sedative, but couldn't findone. They found the door and pounded on it...only to be met with a ginormous minotaur-esque creature.

Back inside, Ivy was about to attack Trevrep. She had her put her staff aside and drawn both swords. They gleamed menacingly, and she got ready to fight. Annie took up the staff and was ready to fight as well, as was Frus. The three of them advanced on Trevrep. Ivy was plotting against him. She wanted to cut something off...something important to the pervert. Or at least make it unusable. Whichever came first...

Beastfire: That's all I got for now...sorry it's so short. Please review, and Emec, it's your turn!


	46. Who won Dundundun

First, I would like to apologize for the inexcusably long delay.

Chapter 46

Frus was amazed by Trevrep's stupidity. He was really low on health, but he thought so highly of himself that he didn't even try to stop and heal himself. Just as well. Saga's messing with the game had changed it from turn-based to real-time, and Trevrep couldn't just stop anymore.

Meanwhile, Otto and Sprx were face to face with the minotaur. Or rather, they were face to belly with it. It was really tall. In fact, its long legs seemed short compared with the rest of it. It snorted twice; it was clearly angry.

"Uh…did we wake you?" asked Otto. His question was met with an enraged stare. After a moment, the minotaur started to stomp forward. It reached behind its back and got out a huge mace. Sprx took a step backwards.

Back at the fight, Ivy was about to make a very…particular final blow. Trevrep would have been using super-attacks like a regular final boss on the brink of defeat, but Frus and Annie were keeping him from making any sudden moves.

Ivy attacked with both swords at the same time. However, she had barely done anything when there was a flash of light, and suddenly everyone was stuck in cinema. There was some storyline that didn't make sense, and then they were standing in a hallway, watching Sprx and Otto being chased back and forth by a giant minotaur.

"What the heck just happened?" demanded Ivy. Her question was met with laughter, from none other than Puck.

"The game is over. You pretty much won. You also saved this random and silly land that I made up in about two minutes from being covered with darkness. Congratulations!" announced Puck.

"What are you talking about? Where's that b$&d I was just fighting?" asked Ivy.

"Oh, I transported him somewhere. What's the problem? He's still feeling all those injuries you inflicted on him," said Puck.

"That's not good enough!" said Ivy.

"Did I mention where I sent him?" asked Puck.

"Where did you send him? Where could you have POSSIBLY sent him to make me feel better?" asked Ivy.

"He's with that crazy lady you guys had problems with before, Rose," said Puck.

"How is that good for us? He'd probably like that!" said Ivy.

"He's still trapped in the land of the dead," said Puck. "I have you book right here."

Ivy took the book from Puck. She still didn't seem happy. "What about that help?"

Puck started laughing. Frus and Annie were watching the Minotaur, which had gotten tired of chasing Sprx and Otto. Frus was sincerely trying to figure out what the big thing was doing.

Meanwhile, Saga was sitting in an unknown room. It was different from where he'd expected to be sent, and he didn't know where he was. It was a nice place, with drinks set out, but Saga was concerned, and even more so when he heard Puck's insane laughing.

Again, I'm sorry for taking so long. Please review!


	47. Catfight

Beastfire: Okay, I know it's been an eternity since this was updated, but I couldn't think of anything. I finally thought of this and hope you enjoy the chapter!

Ivy ran along with the book, hoping to get to Frus and the others. She'd left Puck in a mangled heap on the ground when she tried to turn herself back into a meerkat. The spell went awry and poor Puck never saw what was coming…

Saga looked around. The insane laughter had apparently ceased and he shrugged, leaving the room he was in and soon meeting with Frus and Annie. Their search for the minotaur had led them here, where it decided to go to the nearest bar. Not far from them were Sprx and Otto, the first of which had a red marking on his face, followed by Ygrene, Vrust, and a disgruntled Maria ranting about Sprx's pervertedness. Those three, luckily, were finally sober.

"Looks like we're all here…" said Saga.

"Except for Ivy," Frus added.

That was when the girl in question sped over and crashed into all of them. She held up the book, a smirk forming on her face as she related to them, not how she defeated Trevrep or how Trevrep was sent to be with Rose, but how she beat the crap out of Puck.

"Why don't you see about turning us back to normal, first?" Vrust asked.

Ivy nodded, opened the spell book, and read what she'd assumed to be the right spell. The only thing that happened, was Saga was transformed into a female. A massive catfight broke out between Saga and Ivy, resulting in Sprx getting a nosebleed from how hot he thought this was. Frus and Maria were strategizing on how to get the book away from the two fighting, and Otto was cheering them on.

Annie jumped into the fray to retrieve the book they were depending on, but it had a dent in the cover and the binding had been broken. Ivy's head was bleeding, as Saga had used the thing as a weapon. Frus and Vrust dragged Ivy out of the fight as Ygrene, Maria, and Vrust went after Saga. Sprx tried to as well but received a kick to his favorite area from Annie.

"So…now what…?" asked Otto.

And that's Chapter 47, in all it's shortness. Hey, I was lucky to come up with even THIS much. Hope you all liked it and I hope you get some ideas, Emec…


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